Alcatel Lucent

Robert Nicolas Louis Peschi

Richard Marion Czerwiec

Joseph E Sutherland

Rafael Huysegems

Christian Marie Adelin Hublet

Geert Arthur Edith Van Wonterghem

Riza Cetin

Paul Theo Maria Reynders

Wouter Dirk Helena De Maere

Chistiaan Elise Willem Van Der Auwera

Herman Leo Rosalia Verbueken

Emmanuel Frans Borowski

Marlin V Simmering

Peter Mathijs Leonard Schepers

Richard Haywood Bailey

Koen Ambroise Godelieve De Wulf

Gilbert Alfons Françoise Van Campenhout

Daniel Alois Cornelius Verly

Eduar Christian Maria Boeykens

Dirk Marcel Juliette Van Aken

Peter Alain Richard Van Rompu

The present invention relates to an access unit for coupling a plurality of subscribers to a data communication network, and comprising an auto-configuration control unit adapted to learn, from first auto-configuration data issued by an auto-configuration server and transiting through said access unit towards a particular subscriber coupled to said access unit, a particular network address as being dynamically assigned to said particular subscriber. An access unit according to the invention is characterized in that said auto-configuration control unit is further adapted to learn, from second auto-configuration data transiting through said data communication network, said particular network address as being newly assigned to another subscriber, and in that said access unit further comprises an auto-configuration preemption unit coupled to said auto-configuration control unit, and adapted thereupon to issue an auto-configuration control signal towards said particular subscriber, whereby a new auto-configuration session is initiated between said particular subscriber and said auto-configuration server, and further whereby a new network address is dynamically assigned to said particular subscriber.

Detection of duplicated network addresses

In access multiplexers () for multiplexing Internet Protocol packets to be exchanged between network devices () and subscriber devices (-), the Internet Protocol packets are encapsulated at each side of the access multiplexers (). By providing the access multiplexers () with Internet Protocol routers (-) for routing the Internet Protocol packets via direction dependent routes, the access multiplexers () have become transparent for routing protocols at Internet Protocol level which use multicast Internet Protocol destination addresses or broadcast Internet Protocol destination addresses. Between the network devices () and the access multiplexers () Ethernet packets are exchanged via virtual local area network connections (-) and between the subscriber devices (-) and the access multiplexers () Asynchronous Transfer Mode packets are exchanged via permanent virtual connections (-). The access multiplexers () are digital subscriber line access multiplexers and the network devices () comprise edge routers and the subscriber devices (-) comprise customer premises equipment.

Access multiplexer

Growing community of inventors

Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, Belgium

Robert Nicolas Louis Peschi