Patent ID: 7835304

Claim:
A method for assigning an IP address to a mobile node (MN) from an IP address space represented using an address aggregation tree, comprising: receiving a request for an IP address for the MN; identifying each of a plurality of sub-tree gaps in the address aggregation tree, each of the sub-tree gaps comprising at least one IP address available for assignment to the MN; selecting one of the identified sub-tree gaps, wherein the selected one of the sub-tree gaps is selected according to respective sub-tree gap sizes of the identified sub-tree gaps, wherein the selected sub-tree gap comprises one of the sub-tree gaps having a smallest sub-tree gap size, wherein, when at least two of the plurality of sub-tree gaps have the same smallest sub-tree gap size, the selected sub-tree gap comprises one of the at least two sub-tree gaps having a smallest address space gap size; and assigning one of the at least one available IP address of the selected sub-tree gap to the MN.