A low number of available IP addresses is detected in an IP pool that available for lease from the DHCP server. A neighbor table from a gateway device behind a firewall that blocks ICMP echo requests from the DHCP server. The gateway device is triggered to broadcast an ARP request to network devices of the neighbor table behind the firewall to determine whether a specific IP address is in use. Responsive to an ARP response not being received, the control module releasing a lease for the specific IP thereby returning to the IP pool available for lease in the DHCP server.

A low number of available IP addresses is detected in an IP pool that available for lease from the DHCP server. A neighbor table from a gateway device behind a firewall that blocks ICMP echo requests from the DHCP server. The gateway device is triggered to broadcast an ARP request to network devices of the neighbor table behind the firewall to determine whether a specific IP address is in use. Responsive to an ARP response not being received, the control module releasing a lease for the specific IP thereby returning to the IP pool available for lease in the DHCP server.

Automated techniques for converting network devices from a Layer 2 (L2) network into a Layer 3 (L3) network in a hierarchical manner are described herein. The network devices may be configured to boot such that their ports are in an initialization mode in which the ports are unable to transmit locally generated DHCP packets. When a network device detects that a neighbor (or “peer”) device has acquired an IP address or has been configured by a network controller, then the port on which the neighbor device is detected can then be transitioned from the initialization mode into a forwarding mode. In the forwarding mode, the port can be used to transmit packets to obtain an IP address. Thus, the network devices are converted from an L2 device to an L3 device in a hierarchical order such that upstream devices are discovered and converted into L3 devices before downstream devices.

Automated techniques for converting network devices from a Layer 2 (L2) network into a Layer 3 (L3) network in a hierarchical manner are described herein. The network devices may be configured to boot such that their ports are in an initialization mode in which the ports are unable to transmit locally generated DHCP packets. When a network device detects that a neighbor (or “peer”) device has acquired an IP address or has been configured by a network controller, then the port on which the neighbor device is detected can then be transitioned from the initialization mode into a forwarding mode. In the forwarding mode, the port can be used to transmit packets to obtain an IP address. Thus, the network devices are converted from an L2 device to an L3 device in a hierarchical order such that upstream devices are discovered and converted into L3 devices before downstream devices.

A mobile-to-mobile peering (M2MP) network is formed by connecting mobile stations (MS's) through peer-to-peer communication and multi-hop routing. Each MS is connectable to a radio access network (RAN) that connects to the Internet, and can function as a border gateway protocol (BGP) router, realizing IP packet communication between each MS and the Internet through the M2MP network and the RAN. Each MS uses a public IP address to directly access the Internet. A combination of using the public IP address and functioning as the BGP router enables each MS to run real-time interactive Internet applications through the M2MP network and the RAN. A MS may be implemented with a public IP server for providing Internet application services to any MS in the M2MP network, maintaining provision of these services to the MS's even if all the MS's cannot connect to the Internet.

At a core system of a carrier, obtain, from a carrier application on a mobile device of a subscriber of the carrier, a registration request including a unique internet protocol address of the mobile device and a public key generated by the carrier application from an application certificate of the carrier application. Based on the unique internet protocol address, the core system accesses a database record to retrieve a unique application identifier corresponding to the unique internet protocol address of the mobile device. Send, from the core system of the carrier, to the carrier application on the mobile device of the subscriber of the carrier, a registration request response including the unique application identifier and the public key.

Methods and apparatuses for acquisition of an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)/IPv6 neighbour cache at a user plane function (UPF) entity without performing deep packet inspection for every packet that traverses a network. The ARP broadcast/Internet Control Message Protocol version 6 (ICMPv6) neighbour solicitation multicast from any Ethernet client (a user equipment (UE) or clients behind the UE or clients in a data network (DN)) is responded to by the UPF entity itself, by looking up the ARP/IPv6 Neighbour cache built in the UPF entity, irrespective of whether the UPF entity acts as the core Ethernet switch or whether the core Ethernet switch is in the DN. The solution is simplified to always intercept ARP at the UPF entity and respond to it based on a local ARP/IPv6 Neighbour cache.

Methods and apparatuses for acquisition of an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)/IPv6 neighbour cache at a user plane function (UPF) entity without performing deep packet inspection for every packet that traverses a network. The ARP broadcast/Internet Control Message Protocol version 6 (ICMPv6) neighbour solicitation multicast from any Ethernet client (a user equipment (UE) or clients behind the UE or clients in a data network (DN)) is responded to by the UPF entity itself, by looking up the ARP/IPv6 Neighbour cache built in the UPF entity, irrespective of whether the UPF entity acts as the core Ethernet switch or whether the core Ethernet switch is in the DN. The solution is simplified to always intercept ARP at the UPF entity and respond to it based on a local ARP/IPv6 Neighbour cache.

Systems, methods, and devices for identifying and responding to illegitimate devices on a service provider network include computing devices that are configured to collect dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) information related to a device (e.g., a modem, etc.) that establishes or requests to establish an internet protocol (IP) connection to the service provider network. The computing devices may determine features based on the collected DHCP information, apply the determined features to a classification model, and predict whether the device is an illegitimate device based on a result of applying the determined features to the classification model. The computing devices may perform a responsive action (e.g., blacklist or quarantine the device, etc.) in response to predicting that the device is an illegitimate device.

Systems, methods, and devices for identifying and responding to illegitimate devices on a service provider network include computing devices that are configured to collect dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) information related to a device (e.g., a modem, etc.) that establishes or requests to establish an internet protocol (IP) connection to the service provider network. The computing devices may determine features based on the collected DHCP information, apply the determined features to a classification model, and predict whether the device is an illegitimate device based on a result of applying the determined features to the classification model. The computing devices may perform a responsive action (e.g., blacklist or quarantine the device, etc.) in response to predicting that the device is an illegitimate device.