Patent ID: 9628439
Date: 2017-04-18
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method comprising acts of: storing, by at least one network switch, an address authority table, the address authority table mapping sets of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model Layer 3 addresses to address authorities, wherein: for each set of OSI model Layer 3 addresses mapped by the address authority table, the address authority table identifies an address authority that has trusted address mapping information for that set of OSI model Layer 3 address; identifying, by the at least one network switch, a first address in a first set of addresses, wherein the first address is to be mapped to a second address in a second set of addresses different from the first set of addresses, and wherein the first address is an OSI model Layer 3 address and the second set of addresses comprises a set of OSI model Layer 2 addresses; selecting, by the at least one network switch, an address authority from a plurality of address authorities to which the at least one network switch has access via individually addressed network messages, wherein selecting an address authority comprises looking up the address authority from the address authority table, and wherein: the first address belongs to a set of OSI model Layer 3 addresses mapped by the address authority table, the set of OSI model Layer 3 addresses comprises addresses within a virtual local area network; and the selected address authority is identified in the address authority table as having trusted address mapping information for the virtual local area network; and sending, by the at least one network switch, to the selected address authority, a query, via an individually addressed network message, to map the OSI model Layer 3 address to an OSI model Layer 2 address in the second set of addresses, wherein the set of OSI model Layer 3 addresses for which the selected address authority has trusted address mapping information comprises one or more address blocks for which the selected address authority has trusted address mapping information.