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. 27, 2007
Filed:
Aug. 13, 2002
Mark Stapp, Belmont, MA (US);
Kenneth Kinnear, Jr., Boxborough, MA (US);
Mark Stapp, Belmont, MA (US);
Kenneth Kinnear, Jr., Boxborough, MA (US);
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for providing network addresses for hosts on a network includes generating and storing network configuration information in a subnet management process, where a subnet is a set of contiguous network addresses. The network configuration information indicates network addresses to be distributed among a plurality of network devices. Policy information is also generated and stored. The policy information indicates a policy set of one or more policy processes. Each policy process selects an available subnet from available network addresses. A request for a subnet is received from a subnet requesting process. A particular subnet is determined based on the network configuration information, the request, and the policy set. A response indicating the particular subnet is sent to the subnet requesting process. These techniques allow an administrator to choose a policy for selecting subnets that better utilizes network resources for a wide range of network architectures.