Patent ID: 7373397

Claim:
A network infrastructure apparatus that processes requests for sets of network addresses for dynamically configuring hosts on a network, comprising: a network interface that is coupled to the network for sending and receiving one or more packet flows therefrom; one or more processors; and a computer-readable storage medium comprising one or more stored sequences of instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform: assigning one or more subnets of a particular size to a pool of available subnets; receiving a first request from a first host for a first count of network addresses for a first set of network addresses; determining if available network addresses exist in a pool of available addresses, and if not, then selecting a first subnet from the pool of available subnets and adding said selected first subnet's network addresses to said pool of available addresses; determining the first set of network addresses based on the pool of available addresses; determining usage of the first set of network addresses wherein the usage comprises a proportion of a number of network addresses used compared to a total number of addresses in the first set; modifying the first set of network addresses based upon the usage; sending, in response to the first request, a first message indicating the first set of network addresses.