IP Addresses
An Inmarsat POP environment need to be able to assign IP addresses to connecting terminals - It can all be through NAT setup that allow the same external IP address to connect outgoing - but for incoming traffic is a static needed.
RIPE Europe & Russia
A range of IP addresses can be assigned by the peering Internet provider – but is larger numbers of IP addresses are needed then will the operator need to signup with RIPE to become an ISP that can get own IP ranges through www.arin.net
IP Addresses Through Internet Peering Provider
It relative few static IP addresses is needed or NAT / carrier grade NAT is used then can it be a good idea to select using IP range provided through the Internet peering partner.
If larger ranges is needed then is it better to get a RIPE, ARIN or similar handle that allow the operator to issue own IP addresses.
Privat IP’s & Public IP’s for satellite terminals
When provisioning Inmarsat I4 services like BGAN, FBB, GSPS, SBB will IP addresses be assigned to terminals on the fly through radius servers, these IP addresses will be public IP addresses or private IP addresses.
When using publiv addresses will these need to be routed from terminal all the way into Internet – when using private IP addresses will these need to ne going through NAT in the firewalls if target for Internet and if target corporate VPN tunneling then can they be routed directly into the VPN connections.
Static & Dynamic IP addresses
Terminals can get static IP addresses assigned from radius authentication – both private as well as public – normally will their be a limited number of public IP addresses assigned to an operator meaning the operator need to use public IPs that dynamically get assigned from a pool that can be reused across all users.
Dedicated IP ranges for corporate VPN
VPN segmentation will normally be done based on assigned IP groups, so example company ABC get IP range 10.10.10.xxx or similar that will allow the POP to route all terminal traffic having this IP range provisioned to a given VPN tunnel.
VPN tunnels on POP environment
VPN tunnels need to be added manually on operatr request so that they get mapped to the correct IP groups.
ARIN America
IP addresses assigned in example USA need to go through ARIN that manage all IP addresses in America. Arin subscription is needed as well as learning how to manage IP ranges in www.arin.net – Process for ARIN and RIPE pretty similar.
Own IP addresses through RIPE & ARIN
Getting a RIPE handle or similar mean that the operator need to pay a yearly fee to the provider – not for the actual IP addresses but as a kind of membership fee – this fee are dependant on the type of handle that the operator want – but typically will the smallest be fine.
Getting own handler setup also mean that the operator need to handle and manage IP addresses and ranges inside the handlers web portal – they need to example get an explination for the request behind getting a block of IP addresses – it can be that end customers need VPN connectivity with a static IP. Operator will be able to use version4 as well as version6 addresses across the satellites.
IP Addresses on Inmarsat GX terminals
Assigning IP addresses to Inmarsat GX terminals (LX, G2X, JX, FX,GX..) are done as a part of the normal activation process where Unity handle port assignment on a given terminals – terminals can have a set of physical ports and a set of virtual ports – total of 32 ports – these can each be assigned IP ranges – normally is the user selecting how many usable IP addresses they want and Unity will then automatically handle assignment as well as defining DNS servers, BGP setting and similar.
On FX terminals is it alittle more complicated as Their is a NSD (network service device) involved in the provisioning loop that also need to be configured – this unit can be a Cisco box or be a software NSD implemented on hardware on the vessel. These will manage failover between GX and L-Band services – still maintaining the same assigned IP addresses.
IP Addresses on Inmarsat BGAN, FBB, GSPS, SBB, M2M, PTT, LINK..
IP assignment on Inmarsat I4 are fully managed through radius server installed in the POP – multiple IP addresse can be installed on a single device based on the number of PDPcontext that is being used on a terminal.