Patent ID: 7152117

Claim:
A method for managing leased network addresses for a plurality of networks using overlapping address spaces, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of: storing a plurality of banks of addresses, wherein each said bank includes a pool of available addresses and a data structure of leased addresses, corresponding to the plurality of networks, wherein at least one particular set of one or more network addresses is included in more than one bank of the plurality of banks; receiving a request for a network address for a host on a first network of the plurality of networks from a relay agent on an intermediate device connected to the first network, the request including a qualifier associated with the first network by the relay agent; based on the qualifier, selecting a first bank of addresses from the plurality of banks; identifying a first network address from the first bank of addresses based at least in part on the request; and sending to the relay agent a response for the host, the response indicating the first network address and the qualifier.