Patent ID: 7269161

Claim:
A telephone controller in a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system that controls plural telephone sets via a LAN connected to the Internet, comprising: a receiver that receives a message containing a predetermined header sent via the LAN by one of the telephone sets which, when connected to the LAN, requests an IP address to be allocated for the requesting telephone set; a header analysis circuit connected to the receiver and which analyzes the message to determine that the received message contains the predetermined header; a control circuit connected to the header analysis circuit and receiving notification from the header analysis circuit that the received message contains the predetermined header and, in response, the control circuit checks a set of extensions stored in a table of available extensions and assigns a domain name of the telephone controller to a selected extension and generates an ID comprising the domain name of the telephone controller and the selected extension for the requesting telephone set; an IP address allocation circuit connected to receive from the control circuit the ID and, in response, the IP address allocation circuit allocates an IP address for the requesting telephone set; and a memory including a table, the control circuit receiving the allocated IP address from the IP address allocation circuit and storing the IP address and the ID, comprising the domain name and the extension, in the table; said control circuit notifying the requesting telephone set of the ID, the extension and the IP address for the requesting telephone set, whereby the telephone set automatically acquires its ID, its IP address, and its extension from the telephone controller only by connecting the telephone set to the LAN.