IP-address distribution system utilizing a plurality of switching devices grouped into two or more groups

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9813503-B2
Application number	US-201114111296-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 30, 2011
Priority date	Jun 30, 2011
Publication date	Nov 7, 2017
Grant date	Nov 7, 2017

Abstract

An IP-address distribution system according to the present invention includes a network formed by a plurality of switching devices, and a plurality of IP-address distribution devices connected to the network, wherein the switching devices are grouped into two or more groups, and the switching devices interrupt an IP-address request signal transmitted from a terminal that requests allocation of an IP address at a physical port to which a switching device in another group is connected.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An IP-address distribution system comprising:
a network formed by a plurality of switching devices; and
a plurality of IP-address distribution devices connected to the network, wherein the switching devices are grouped into two or more groups, wherein at least one of the IP-address distribution devices is connected to a sub-network, which is a network formed by switching devices in a same group, and
a switching device, among the switching devices, having a physical port connected to another switching device in another group is configured to interrupt, at the physical port, an IP-address request signal, transmitted to the plurality of IP-address distribution devices from a terminal included in a first group that requests allocation of an IP address from the plurality of IP-address distribution devices, wherein the interruption includes blocking passage of the IP-address request signal between a logical port of a first switching device in the first group and a logical port of a second switching device in a second group and preventing the IP-address request signal from reaching at least one of the plurality of IP-address distribution devices which is connected to a sub-network of the second group that is different from the first group.

2. The IP-address distribution system according to claim 1 , wherein the switching device further interrupts, at the physical port, an IP-address distribution signal transmitted from the at least one IP-address distribution device connected to the sub-network to the terminal in response to the IP-address request signal.

3. The IP-address distribution system according to claim 1 , wherein one IP-address distribution device is connected to each sub-network.

4. The IP-address distribution system according to claim 1 , wherein when two or more IP-address distribution devices are connected to a same sub-network, upon reception of an IP-address request signal transmitted from a same source terminal, the two or more IP-address distribution devices connected to the same sub-network distribute IP addresses different from each other.

5. The IP-address distribution system according to claim 1 , wherein when two or more IP-address distribution devices are connected to a same sub-network, each of the two or more IP-address distribution devices connected to the same sub-network manages a same IP address, shares information on allocation status of each IP address with another IP-address distribution device, and upon reception of an IP-address request signal transmitted from a same source terminal, distributes the same IP address.

6. The IP-address distribution system according to claim 1 , wherein
the IP-address request signal includes device type information on a source terminal, and
the IP-address distribution devices distribute an IP address in a different range for each device type.

7. The IP-address distribution system according to claim 1 , wherein the network is a network constructed in a train.

8. The IP-address distribution system according to claim 7 , wherein switching devices installed in a same vehicle are grouped into a same group.

9. The IP-address distribution system according to claim 1 , wherein the switching devices are Ethernet switches.

10. The IP-address distribution system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the IP-address request signal is associated with a first logical port identifier, and
the interruption includes blocking signals associated with the first logical port identifier.

11. The IP-address distribution system according to claim 10 , wherein:
one or more of the plurality of IP-address distribution devices is configured to transmit an IP-address distribution signal assigning an IP address to the terminal, the IP address distribution signal being associated with a second logical port identifier, and
the interruption includes blocking signals associated with the first logical port identifier and signals associated with the second logical port identifier.

12. The IP-address distribution system according to claim 1 , wherein:
one or more of the plurality of IP-address distribution devices is configured to transmit an IP-address distribution signal assigning an IP address to the terminal, the IP address distribution signal being associated with a first logical port identifier, and
the interruption includes blocking signals associated with the first logical port identifier.

Assignees

• Shigeeda Tetsuya
• Honda Shingo
• Mitsubishi Electric Corp

Inventors

• Shigeeda Tetsuya
• Honda Shingo

Classifications

• B61L15/0072

  On-board train data handling · CPC title

• H04L49/355

  Application aware switches, e.g. for HTTP · CPC title

• H04L61/2015

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L61/2038

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/12 Primary

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title