| IP hosts and network infrastructure have historically been difficult to configure, requiring network services such as DHCP and DNS servers, and relying on highly trained network administrators. This need for administration has prevented IP networks from being used in many environments such as in homes, in small businesses, in impromptu networks established at conferences, construction sites, emergency relief stations, etc.; With the proliferation of IP-enabled network-attached appliances and inexpensive computing devices, the demand to enable plug-and-play, easy-to-use IP networking has increased. This demand has recently initiated a new paradigm of IP networking called zero configuration, or zeroconf, networking. The goal is to develop a set of zeroconf configuration protocols to enable IP networking without manual configuration or administration. Such IP networks are called zeroconf networks.; In this dissertation we examine protocols for IP address configuration and name-to-address translation in zeroconf networks. We first examine the existing IP address configuration protocols for routerless zeroconf networks and prove their correctness. We next examine the only existing single-router IP address configuration protocol, discuss its shortcoming and propose two new IP address configuration protocols to address that shortcoming. We then describe extensions of these three IP address configuration protocols for multi-router zeroconf networks. Finally, we examine the existing name-to-address translation protocol for routerless networks and present extensions of this protocol for single-router and multi-router zeroconf networks. |
