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:
Nov. 20, 2007
Filed:
Feb. 27, 2002
Alan Rubinstein, Fremont, CA (US);
Gary Wang, Cupertino, CA (US);
Yung-fu Chang, San Jose, CA (US);
3Com Corporation, Marlborough, MA (US);
Abstract
A secure network outlet for supporting IP device address assigning functionality. A network access request is received from an electronic device communicatively coupled to intelligent hardware. In one embodiment, a device address request is transmitted to a network server. A first device address is received at the intelligent hardware from the network server. The intelligent hardware then assigns a second device address to the electronic device. In another embodiment, the intelligent hardware has a pre-assigned first device address and assigns a second device address to the electronic device, such that the intelligent hardware eliminates the need for a separate device address assigning server. The present invention reduces the consumption of global device addresses within a network, and also provides protection to electronic devices by hiding their device addresses from the external network.