Patent ID: 7490351

Claim:
A method of preventing Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) broadcast flooding of subscriber access links, comprising: receiving an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) request packet at a subscriber network edge device, wherein the ARP request packet comprises source information including a source IP address and a source MAC address; comparing, at the subscriber network edge device, source and destination information contained within the ARP request packet to an address lease information for subscribers of a subscriber network that comprises, for a subscriber, an Internet Protocol (IP) address, a Media Access Control (MAC) address, and a port that includes determining if the source IP address and the source MAC address match the address lease information of the subscriber; broadcasting only on network uplinks coupled to the network edge device if the destination information obtained from the ARP request packet is not associated with the address lease information of at least one of the subscribers; and discarding the ARP request packet if the source IP and the source MAC address do not match the address lease information of the subscriber.