Patent ID: 7000029
Filing Date: 2006-02-14
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of automatically allocating a unique address to a network device, comprising the steps of: introducing a set of identifiers associated with the network device, each identifier designating an assignment of the network device to a hierarchical layer of devices in the network and being unique to the layer; applying a first transformation, which has the inverse transformation, to the set of identifiers, the value of the transformation being the address of the network device, the method further comprising the step of arranging the addresses of the devices in the network in a predetermined order, comprising: communicating the device addresses assigned between the devices that are directly connected to each other by one of the physical and logical link; for each device, applying an ordering condition to the address received existing address of the device and the from the connected device; and if the condition is satisfied, apply a second transformation having the inverse transformation, to one of the existing and received device addresses to change one of the existing and received addresses so that the network device addresses are unique and arranged in the order defined by the second transformation.