The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 01, 2003
Filed:
Feb. 10, 1999
Maria Alice Dos Santos, Redwood City, CA (US);
Shujin Zhang, San Mateo, CA (US);
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A method for replying to a DHCP request packet is provided which allows a DHCP server to forward its reply packet directly back to the requester, thus permitting a gateway or similar device to make a DHCP request on behalf of a client. A reply to sender options field in the DHCP request packet is used to signify when the reply packet should be sent directly back to the requester. The method includes: examining the reply to sender field; extracting an address from the giaddr field if a flag in the reply to sender field is not set; forwarding a reply packet to said address extracted from the giaddr field if the flag in the reply to sender field is not set and said giaddr field is not empty; broadcasting a reply packet over a local subnet if the flag in the reply to sender field is not set and said giaddr field is empty; extracting a source network address from the source network address field if the flag in the reply to sender field is set; and forwarding a reply packet to said source network address if the flag in the reply to sender field is set.