Patent ID: 11902099
Assignee: NILE GLOBAL, INC.
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 9:
10. A method for automatically building an internet protocol (IP) network, the method comprising:
at a first switch or router, obtaining a first IP address from a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server;
on an unnumbered interface of the first switch or router, receiving a DHCP request from an unnumbered interface of a second switch or router, wherein each of the unnumbered interface of the second switch or router and the unnumbered interface of the first switch or router comprises an unnumbered logical or virtual interface, and wherein IP processing is enabled on the unnumbered logical or virtual interface without assigning an explicit IP address to the unnumbered logical or virtual interface, wherein the first switch or router, the second switch or router, and at least one other switch or router are connected in series through a plurality of unnumbered interfaces to form a circle, wherein all network interfaces of the second switch or router are unnumbered interfaces;
at the first switch or router, forwarding the DHCP request from the second switch or router to the DHCP server using the first IP address as a relay IP address;
at the first switch or router, receiving a DHCP response from the DHCP server, wherein the DHCP response contains a second IP address of the second switch or router, and wherein the first and second switches or routers are in the same subnet, and wherein the first and second IP addresses have an identical subnet mask; and
at the first switch or router, forwarding the DHCP response from the DHCP server to the second switch or router through the unnumbered interface of the first switch or router and the unnumbered interface of the second switch or router.