Patent ID: 7113513

Claim:
A method for transmitting data from a first router device to a second router device, which comprises: connecting the first router device to a communications network through a network gateway unit; providing a hardware address according to a routing protocol, the hardware address being used to identify the second router device located downstream with respect to a data path leading to a transmission destination of the data; allocating the hardware address to the data to be transmitted with the first router device dependent upon the transmission destination of the data; transmitting the hardware address and the data from the first router device to the network gateway unit; checking, with the network gateway unit, whether or not the transmitted hardware address matches a hardware address persistently or by configuration stored in a memory of the network gateway unit and, in the event of a positive check result: allocating a network address to the data with the network gateway unit, the network address being allocated to the transmitted hardware address in the network gateway unit and identifying an exit point of the communications network, the allocated network address being stored persistently or by configuration within the network gateway unit; forwarding the network address and the data from the network gateway unit into the communications network after conversion according to a transmission protocol used in the communications network; and transmitting the data by the communications network to the exit point by the network address, the exit point being where the data is fed to the second router device.