Patent ID: 7664121

Claim:
A method for switching data between a mobile appliance and appliances in a packet oriented local area network, wherein the mobile appliance is connected to the local area network via one of a direct connection and via a router, and wherein the appliances in the local area network and the router each has a network address and an appliance address, the method comprising: assigning a fixed address to the mobile appliance; storing the assigned network address in the router if the mobile appliance is accessible via the router, when the mobile is not directly connected to the local area network; deleting the assigned network address from the router when the mobile appliance is directly connected to the local area network; forwarding, by the router, an appliance address request relating to the assigned network address from the mobile appliance to the local area network; determining whether the requested assignment network address is stored in the router: responding to the appliance address request relating to the assigned network address with the appliance address of the router if the requested assigned network address is stored in the router: and forwarding packets containing the assigned network address and the appliance address of the router as destination addresses from the local area network to the mobile appliance via the router.