Patent ID: 8793792

Claim:
A method comprising: storing, at one or more memories of a network device, a first security key associated with a first adjacent network device; determining, by one or more processors of the network device, a time value; computing, by the one or more processors, a first Internet Protocol (IP) address of the first adjacent network device according to the first security key and the time value; sending a packet to the first adjacent network device using the first IP address; determining, by the one or more processors, a next time value; and computing, by the one or more processors, a next IP address of the first adjacent network device according to the first security key and the next time value; and determining, by the one or more processors, a first hopping schedule that controls the computing of the next IP address based on the first security key according to a first frequency: and a second hopping schedule that controls the computing of the next IP address based on the first security key according to a second frequency higher than the first frequency and dynamically switching from the first hopping schedule to the second hopping schedule in response to detecting a change in a network factor corresponding to at least one of the network device and the first adjacent network device.