Patent ID: 8526467

Claim:
An apparatus comprising one or more network interfaces; a processor; a memory; computer program code, physically stored in a storage medium, comprising instructions operative to cause the processor and the apparatus to: receive a request from a client, wherein the request includes a host name, and wherein the request is embodied in a packet having a first network layer address, associated with the client, corresponding to a first network layer protocol; access one or more data stores of mappings between host names and network layer addresses to identify one or more network layer addresses associated with the host name identified in the request, wherein one or more of the network layer addresses in the one or more data stores correspond to the first network layer protocol and other ones of the network layer addresses correspond to a second network layer protocol; and generate a response to the request, wherein the response includes a second network layer address corresponding to the first network layer protocol, wherein the second network layer address is selected from the one or more identified network layer addresses mapped to the host name or a third network layer address based on application of one or more policies; and transmit the response to the client.