Establishing a connection to multiple network devices using a single internet protocol (IP) address

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10270692-B1
Application number	US-201615348558-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Nov 10, 2016
Priority date	Nov 10, 2016
Publication date	Apr 23, 2019
Grant date	Apr 23, 2019

Abstract

A device may receive a request to establish a connection to a network device or one or more other network devices. The request may include a destination identifier that identifies a destination to which the request is to be provided. The one or more other network devices may be associated with a same Internet protocol (IP) address as the network device. The device may determine, from the destination identifier, a device identifier that identifies the network device or another network device as the destination to which the request is to be provided. The device may determine whether the device identifier matches a set of stored device identifiers. The device may provide the request to the network device or the other network device based on determining that the device identifier matches the set of stored device identifiers. The device may perform an action related to the request or the connection.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A device, comprising:
one or more memories; and
one or more processors, communicatively coupled to the one or more memories, to:
receive a request to establish a connection,
the request being destined for the device or one or more other devices,
the device and the one or more other devices being associated with a single Internet protocol (IP) address,
the request including a destination identifier that identifies a destination to which the request is to be provided;

determine that the destination identifier includes a first device identifier that identifies the device and a second device identifier that identifies a second device of the one or more other devices;
identify the second device as the destination to which the request is to be provided based on determining that the destination identifier includes the first device identifier and the second device identifier;
determine whether the first device identifier or second device identifier matches an identifier included in a set of device identifiers stored by the device to verify the first device identifier or second device identifier;
provide the request to the second device based on verifying the first device identifier or second device identifier; and
perform an action related to the request or the connection based on providing the request to the second device.

2. The device of claim 1 , where:
the device includes a daemon used to receive the request, and
where the one or more processors, when receiving the request, are to:
receive the request using the daemon.

3. The device of claim 1 , where the one or more processors are further to:
prevent the device from authenticating the request by configuring a pluggable authentication module (PAM) of the device; and
where the one or more processors, when providing the request to the second device, are to:
provide the request to the second device without authenticating the request based on a configuration of the PAM of the device.

4. The device of claim 1 , where the one or more processors are further to:
prevent the device from authenticating the request by configuring a daemon of the device; and
where the one or more processors, when providing the request to the second device, are to:
provide the request to the second device without authenticating the request based on a configuration of the daemon of the device.

5. The device of claim 1 , where the one or more processors are further to:
determine that the first device identifier is different than the second device identifier; and
where the one or more processors, when identifying the second device as the destination to which the request is to be provided, are to:
determine that the first device identifier is different than the second device identifier.

6. The device of claim 1 , where the destination identifier includes:
information identifying a domain name,
information identifying a hostname, or
information identifying both the domain name and the hostname.

7. The device of claim 1 , where the one or more processors are further to:
provide a set of credentials to the second device after determining that the second device identifier identifies the second device,
the set of credentials being provided without authenticating the set of credentials; and

where the one or more processors, when providing the request to the second device, are to:
provide the request to the second device to permit the second device to authenticate the request based on providing the set of credentials to the second device.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, the instructions comprising:
one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
receive a request to establish a connection to a network device or one or more other network devices,
the request including a destination identifier that identifies a destination to which the request is to be provided,
the one or more other network devices being associated with a same Internet protocol (IP) address as the network device;

provide a set of instructions to a daemon of the network device to permit the daemon to determine a device identifier,
the set of instructions indicating a format of the destination identifier or the device identifier;

determine, from the destination identifier and using the set of instructions and based on providing the set of instructions to the daemon of the network device, the device identifier that identifies the network device or another network device of the one or more other network devices as the destination to which the request is to be provided based on receiving the request;
determine whether the device identifier matches a set of stored device identifiers,
the set of stored device identifiers identifying a set of verified network devices;

provide the request to the network device or the other network device based on determining that the device identifier matches the set of stored device identifiers; and
perform an action related to the request or the connection based on providing the request to the network device or the other network device.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , where the one or more instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to:
provide, to the other network device, a set of destination identifiers to permit the other network device to request to establish the connection,
the set of destination identifiers being associated with the set of verified network devices; and

where the one or more instructions, that cause the one or more processors to receive the request, cause the one or more processors to:
receive the request based on providing the set of destination identifiers to the other network device.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , where the one or more instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to:
prevent authentication of the request by the network device based on receiving the request; and
where the one or more instructions, that cause the one or more processors to provide the request to the network device or the other network device, cause the one or more processors to:
provide the request to the network device or the other network device based on preventing authentication of the request.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , where the one or more instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to:
determine that the destination identifier includes a first device identifier and a second device identifier,
the first device identifier being associated with the network device that received the request,
the second device identifier being associated with the other network device; and

identify the other network device as the destination to which the request is to be provided based on determining that the destination identifier includes the first device identifier and the second device identifier.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , where the one or more instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to:
determine whether the network device can determine the device identifier; and
where the one or more instructions, that cause the one or more processors to determine the device identifier, further cause the one or more processors to:
determine the device identifier based on determining whether the network device can determine the device id

Assignees

• Juniper Networks Inc

Inventors

• Panda Pravas Kumar
• Agrawal Deepansh

Classifications

• H04L63/0876

  based on the identity of the terminal or configuration, e.g. MAC address, hardware or software configuration or device fingerprint · CPC title

• H04L63/08

  for authentication of entities (cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32) · CPC title

• H04L67/141 Primary

  Setup of application sessions (admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70) · CPC title

• H04L45/74 Primary

  Address processing for routing · CPC title

• H04L67/146

  Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding · CPC title