Patent ID: 9338077
Filing Date: 2016-05-10
CPC Classification: H04L,Y02D

Claim Text:
1. A system for enabling network devices to communicate in an unnumbered network, the system comprising: a first network device comprising a first wired network interface and one or more other network interfaces, wherein the first wired network interface is associated with a first network layer address within a first subnet; a second network device comprising a second wired network interface and one or more other network interfaces, wherein the second wired network interface is associated with a second network layer address within a second subnet that is different than the first subnet; and a direct, physical wired network connection communicatively coupling only the first network device to the second network device via the first wired network interface and the second wired network interface; wherein (1) the first wired network interface lacks a network layer address unique within the first network device, (2) the second wired network interface lacks a network layer address unique within the second network device, (3) the first wired network interface and the second wired network interface are each configured to use a multiple access protocol, capable of communicating with multiple devices, as a single access protocol, (4) the second network device is configured to transmit an address request to the first network device in response to a service running on the second network device that has requested a network layer payload be transmitted to the first network device, wherein the address request does not include a hardware address associated with the second wired network interface, (5) the first network device is configured to transmit an address transmission over the first wired network interface using the direct, physical wired network connection in response to receiving the address request, the address transmission comprising a hardware address associated with the first wired network interface, so that the address transmission is directly received by only the second network device at the second wired network interface, wherein the address transmission does not comprise a network layer address and does not conform to any protocol for resolution of network layer addresses into link layer addresses, (6) the second network device is configured to store, in response to receiving the address transmission, the hardware address associated with the wired network interface which transmitted the address transmission, the hardware address stored in a memory location in the second network device that is configured to be accessed for addressing frames sent by the second wired network interface, and (7) the second network device is configured to, upon receipt of the network layer payload to transmit to the first wired network interface and the address transmission, extract, from the memory location, the stored hardware address resulting from the address transmission that does not conform to any protocol for resolution of network layer addresses into link layer addresses, construct a frame addressed to the hardware address comprising the network layer payload and the hardware address associated with the second wired network interface, and transmit the frame over the second wired network interface, the frame not conforming to a point-to-point network data link protocol, thereby enabling frame communication within the unnumbered network with fewer allocated network layer addresses than would be necessary if the network were configured in a numbered manner.