Patent ID: 8504722

Claim:
A method implemented in a network element to make a first device using Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) and assigned an IPv4 private address accessible to a second device using Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6), the method comprising the steps of: receiving by the network element an IPv6 formatted data packet, having a virtual IPv6 address as a destination address and having been sent from the second device; determining by the network element whether the virtual IPv6 address includes a representation prefix (RP), wherein the RP indicates that the virtual IPv6 address is a virtual address; sending by the network element an address map query (AMQ) to a customer premise equipment (CPE), wherein the AMQ includes the virtual IPv6 address, wherein the CPE stores a mapping between the virtual IPv6 address and a private IPv4 address of the first device, and wherein the CPE is connected to the first device; receiving by the network element an address map response (AMR) from the CPE with the private IPv4 address corresponding to the virtual IPv6 address; translating by the network element the IPv6 formatted data packet into an IPv4 formatted data packet having a source address that is an address of the network element and having the private IPv4 address in place of the virtual IPv6 address as the destination address; and sending by the network element the IPv4 formatted data packet to the CPE through an IPv4 over IPv6 tunnel, whereby the network element translates the IPv6 formatted data packet with assistance from the CPE and without implementing a domain name server 64 in the network.