Hewlett-Packard Company

Mark Savoldi

Alan R Albrecht

Lisa S Brown

Network access to a port is secured by monitoring the source address of packets that are sent as a device tries to train to the port over the network. If the source address matches an authorized source address assigned to the port to which the device is attached, then the device is allowed access to the system. If the device tries to train with a source address different from the authorized address, then the device is not allowed to train into the network, and all packets sent by the device are denoted as errored packets to prevent them from being accepted by any other device in the network. The system also detects when a device tries to disguise itself by first training with an authorized source address and then sends a packet with an unauthorized source address. If a packet is received which contains a source address other than the one that the device is authorized to use, the packet is marked as invalid so that it is not accepted by any other device in the network. The unauthorized device is then required to re-establish its connection to the network by retraining to guarantee that it is the authorized device.

Growing community of inventors

Lincoln, CA, United States of America

Mark Savoldi