Patent ID: 8601142

Claim:
A network device-implemented method, comprising: determining, by the network device and for at least one specified time period, a value based on network usage conditions; determining, by the network device and based on the determined value, a port block size indicating a quantity of ports to allocate to client devices, wherein determining the port block size comprises: determining the quantity of ports to allocate to each of the client devices based on a total available number of ports and based on a maximum number of client devices that have historically been simultaneously allocated an IP address and a port range; receiving, by the network device and from one of the client devices, a request for an address; and transmitting, by the network device and in response o the request, a message including an Internet Protocol (IP) address and a port range, the message indicating that the IP address and port range is to be allocated to the one of the client devices based on an order of a first port value and a second port value in the port range, where the port range covers a quantity of ports corresponding to the port block size.