Identifying mobile network devices

There are different ways you can identify devices. You can use an external ID (e.g.: "device@testcsp.net"), IP address with an optional port and phone number.

Identifying devices by external ID

A Device ID is an email-like external identifier for a device (or subscriber) into the network. It works as a device object created to manage a particular device on the network, for example: device@testcsp.net. Check how it's used in the SDK snippet below.

Identifying devices by IP address and port

Our DeviceIPv4Addr model allows you to specify Ipv4 and Ipv6 addresses to uniquely identify devices in order to easily and safely program mobile network features.

Why does DeviceIpv4Addr require public or private IP addresses and ports to create a QoD session?

What is NAT technology

As you know, private (local) IP addresses are unique and can be assigned in a private network to securely connect to other resources. That's why, they can be more secure than public (observed) IP addresses since they cannot be seen online as it would happen with public addresses.

Network Address Translation (NAT) helps offering an extra layer of security by hiding the private (local) IP addresses from external networks. It is also a technique that enables sharing a public IP address among multiple resources.

NAT64, on the other hand, acts like translator that enables IPv6-only devices or resources to communicate with IPv4 ones. So, NAT64 helps bridging the gap between the older (IPv4) and newer (IPv6) protocols by enabling communication between resources using them. And if the device is using an IPv6, then you might also be able to avoid specifying the IPv4.

Carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT) is an alternative to NAT and it allows sharing public IP addresses among multiple customers. Network Operators use it to preserve the amount of public IP addresses, since it is already exhausted. The idea is that the IPv4 range is too narrow to be used as a complete IPv4 address for a device. So, Network as Code uses CGNAT and the private IP address or the ports being used defines a sub-range. Effectively enlarging the original 32-bit range of the IPv4 address.

Why do I need to include private/public IP addresses and port?

If you are identifying a device by IPv4, you will need to specify the following either of the following:

Note that the IP address information can be obtained from Domain Name System (DNS) servers or other related means.

• Public address and public port (preferred and simpler method) or
• Public address and private (local) address.

So, CGNAT technology is applied here and you can choose to provide information according to which one is known at the moment.

However, when NAT64 is in use, you will need to identify the device by using its public_address (Ipv4) and public_port or provide the private Ipv6 address separately.

Identifying devices by phone number

The phone number parameter works as a string and it accepts the "+" sign, but not spaces or "()" marks. Prefer to use only numbers, such as phone_number = "36721601234567".

Check the complete snippet below to see all the different ways to identify a device in practice:

Identifying mobile network devices with multiple parameters

Here is an example of how DeviceIPv4Addr works in our SDK:

import network_as_code as nac
 
from network_as_code.models.device import DeviceIpv4Addr
 
client = nac.NetworkAsCodeClient(
    token="<your-application-key-here>"
)
 
device = client.devices.get("device@testcsp.net",
                            ipv4_address = DeviceIpv4Addr(public_address="233.252.0.2",
                                                          private_address="192.0.2.25",
                                                          public_port=80),
                            ipv6_address = "2001:db8:1234:5678:9abc:def0:fedc:ba98",
# The phone number accepts the "+" sign, but not spaces or "()" marks
                            phone_number = "36721601234567"
)

TIP: On this page, we further detail which parameters the client.devices.get() method can contain.

How to gather the necessary information to identify devices?

Phone numbers are the most well-known device identifiers, but how can you identify devices in other ways, in case an IoT device does not have a phone number?

That is why the Device ID (also referred to as External Identifier or Network Access Identifier, e.g.: device@testcsp.net) can work as an alternate.

In Business to Business (B2B) scenarios, the enterprise owns mobile subscriptions for the devices, and they obtain it from the Network Operator. So, they would know their Device IDs. Enterprises should provide the Device ID related information so that their applications can use them to identify the devices on the mobile network.

In Business to Consumer (B2C) scenarios, phone numbers can act as a simple identifier for devices or users owning the mobile subscription.

IP Addresses are dynamic. So, they are difficult to identify in advance. Whoever owns the IoT device will need to implement a way for it to tell its current IP address(es). Let's suppose you or a client owns a business that manages flying drones. Then, you (or the client) would have an operations center to manage/control these drones. They would need to connect to this operations center whenever they were on and send their connection details with current IP address(es).