US6829709B1 — Validation of network communication tunnels

Claim 1

Independent Claim 83 words

A method for validating establishment of at least one IP communication tunnel, the method comprising: sending an IP packet on the communication tunnel with a predetermined value in a Time-To-Live field such that an ICMP message is generated within said tunnel in response to said value of said Time-To-Live field; receiving said ICMP message; and examining the contents of the ICMP message to validate that transformations from an originator of a validation process and performed on data packets passing therethrough were done properly.

Claim 2

Independent Claim 83 words

A method for validating establishment of at least one IP communication tunnel, the method comprising: sending an IP packet on the communication tunnel with a predetermined value in a Time-To-Live field such that an ICMP message is generated within said tunnel in response to said value of said Time-To-Live field; receiving said ICMP message; and examining the contents of the ICMP message to validate that transformations from an originator of a validation process and performed on data packets passing therethrough were done properly.

Claim 3

Independent Claim 88 words

A method for validating establishment of at least one IP communication tunnel, the method comprising: establishing a network device level socket at the originator that examines all packets passing through a selected network device; sending an IP packet on the communication tunnel; receiving a copy of the IP packet from the device level socket after transformations from an originator of a validation process and performed on data packets passing therethrough have been applied; and examining the contents of the copy to validate that the transformations were done properly.

Claim 4

Independent Claim 88 words

A method for validating establishment of at least one IP communication tunnel, the method comprising: establishing a network device level socket at the originator that examines all packets passing through a selected network device; sending an IP packet on the communication tunnel; receiving a copy of the IP packet from the device level socket after transformations from an originator of a validation process and performed on data packets passing therethrough have been applied; and examining the contents of the copy to validate that the transformations were done properly.

Claim 5

Independent Claim 88 words

A method for validating establishment of at least one IP communication tunnel, the method comprising: establishing a dummy interface at originator with the address of a participant in the tunnel; sending an IP packet on the communication tunnel to the participant; receiving the IP packet from the dummy interface after transformations from an originator of a validation process and performed on data packets passing therethrough have been applied; and examining the contents of the packet to validate that transformations performed on data packets passing therethrough were done properly.

Claim 6

Independent Claim 88 words

A method for validating establishment of at least one IP communication tunnel, the method comprising: establishing a dummy interface at originator with the address of a participant in the tunnel; sending an IP packet on the communication tunnel to the participant; receiving the IP packet from the dummy interface after transformations from an originator of a validation process and performed on data packets passing therethrough have been applied; and examining the contents of the packet to validate that transformations performed on data packets passing therethrough were done properly.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 20 words

A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the IP communication tunnel uses Generic Routing Encapsulation as the transformation.

Claim 8

Independent Claim 120 words

A method for validating establishment of at least one IP communication tunnel, formed on a portion of a route between a first end-station and a second end-station, the method comprising: configuring a router to form a filtering agent on said tunnel to filter a subset of packets generated within said first end-station; generating IP packets in said first end-station with markings on the communication tunnel; returning filtered packets from said filtering agent in said router to said first end-station and examining the filtered packets generated by said first end-station, having said markings and returned by said filtering agent to validate that transformations from an originator of a validation process and performed on data packets passing therethrough have been done properly.

Claim 9

Independent Claim 120 words

A method for validating establishment of at least one IP communication tunnel, formed on a portion of a route between a first end-station and a second end-station, the method comprising: configuring a router to form a filtering agent on said tunnel to filter a subset of packets generated within said first end-station; generating IP packets in said first end-station with markings on the communication tunnel; returning filtered packets from said filtering agent in said router to said first end-station and examining the filtered packets generated by said first end-station, having said markings and returned by said filtering agent to validate that transformations from an originator of a validation process and performed on data packets passing therethrough have been done properly.

Claim 10

Dependent Claim 16 words

A method as recited in claim 5 , used for validation of a partial route transformation.

Claim 11

Dependent Claim 23 words

A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the IP communication tunnel uses the IP-security protocols established using the Internet Key Exchange.

Claim 12

Dependent Claim 19 words

A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the IP communication tunnel uses IP compression as the transformation.

Claim 13

Dependent Claim 20 words

A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the IP communication tunnel uses network address translation as the transformation.

Claim 14

Independent Claim 119 words

A method for validating establishment of an IP communication tunnel, the method comprising: validating that transformations from an originator of a validation process have been established properly by invoking a validation client on said originator, that tests and verifies that packets originating on said originator have been properly transformed; after successful validation in the previous step, requesting that at least one other participant in the tunnel validate that the transformations from that participant have been established properly by invoking a validation client on said other participant, that tests and verifies that packets originating on said other participant have been properly transformed; and verifying that the other participant in the tunnel can communicate with the originator of the validation process.

Claim 15

Independent Claim 119 words

A method for validating establishment of an IP communication tunnel, the method comprising: validating that transformations from an originator of a validation process have been established properly by invoking a validation client on said originator, that tests and verifies that packets originating on said originator have been properly transformed; after successful validation in the previous step, requesting that at least one other participant in the tunnel validate that the transformations from that participant have been established properly by invoking a validation client on said other participant, that tests and verifies that packets originating on said other participant have been properly transformed; and verifying that the other participant in the tunnel can communicate with the originator of the validation process.

Claim 16

Dependent Claim 36 words

An apparatus for validating establishment of IP communication tunnels as recited in claim 1 , further comprising a remote party transformation validator for validating that at least one participant in the tunnel performs the transformation properly.

Claim 17

Dependent Claim 58 words

An article of manufacture comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing validation of establishment of at least one IP communication tunnel, the computer readable program code means in said article of manufacture comprising computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect the steps of claim 1 .

Claim 18

Dependent Claim 58 words

A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing validation of establishment of at least one IP communication tunnel, the computer readable program code means in said computer program product comprising computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect the steps of claim 1 .

Claim 19

Dependent Claim 41 words

A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for validating establishment of at least one IP communication tunnel, said method steps comprising the steps of claim 1 .

Claim 20

Dependent Claim 58 words

An article of manufacture comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing validation of establishment of at least one IP communication tunnel, the computer readable program code means in said article of manufacture comprising computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect the steps of claim 10 .

Claim 21

Dependent Claim 58 words

A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing validation of establishment of at least one IP communication tunnel, the computer readable program code means in said computer program product comprising computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect the steps of claim 10 .

Claim 22

Dependent Claim 41 words

A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for validating establishment of at least one IP communication tunnel, said method steps comprising the steps of claim 10 .

Claim 23

Dependent Claim 115 words

A computer program product comprising: a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing validation of establishment of at least one IP communication tunnel, the computer readable program code means in said computer program product comprising: computer readable program code means for causing a validating computer to effect the functionality of a transformation validator as specified in claim 3 , for validating that the transformations from an originator of the validation process has been done properly; and computer readable program code means for causing the validating computer to effect the functionality of a communication validator for validating that at least one participant in the tunnel can communicate with the originator.

Claim 24

Dependent Claim 51 words

A computer program product recited in claim 18 , wherein the computer readable program code means further comprises computer readable program code means for causing the computer to effect the functionality of a remote party transformation validator for validating that at least one participant in the tunnel performs the transformation properly.

Annuity Stage	Window Opens	Payment Deadline	Surcharge Period Until	Estimated Fee	Status
3.5 Years (Year 4)	2007-12-07	2008-06-07	2008-12-07	$2000.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8)	2011-12-07	2012-06-07	2012-12-07	$3760.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12)	2015-12-07	2016-06-07	2016-12-07	$7700.00	Window Closed / Lapsed

Validation of network communication tunnels

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