Patent ID: 7596693
Filing Date: 2009-09-29
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of preventing a first subscriber of a subscriber network from receiving data packets intended for another subscriber of the subscriber network by spoofing an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) response packet, the method comprising: forwarding from a network edge device an ARP request packet to at least one subscriber access link; receiving at the network edge device the ARP response packet from a responding subscriber, wherein the ARP response packet includes a packet source information; comparing the packet source information that includes a source Internet Protocol (IP) address and a source Media Access Control (MAC) address contained within the ARP response packet to an address lease information for the responding subscriber from a database of subscribers that includes an Internet Protocol (IP) address of a subscriber, a Media Access Control (MAC) address of the subscriber, and a port of the network edge device corresponding to the subscriber, wherein the comparing includes determining whether the source IP address and the source MAC address match the address lease information; determining on which port of the network edge device to forward the ARP response packet based on the address lease information; and forwarding the ARP response packet on the determined port of the network device only if the source information obtained from the ARP response packet corresponds to the address lease information of the responding subscriber.