Patent ID: 7356045

Claim:
A method performed by a network device coupled with a plurality of hosts, for transparently sharing at least one common IPv4 address among the plurality of hosts wherein at least a first host of the plurality of hosts uses the IPv4 protocol (IPv4 host) and wherein at least a second host of the plurality of hosts uses an IPv6 protocol (IPv6 host), the method comprising: receiving a packet from a host, the packet including first data having a first source address and a first destination address; performing a network address translation with port address translation if the first data is in an IPv4 protocol; and performing a network address translation protocol translation with port address translation if the first data is in an IPv6 protocol, wherein the performing a network address translation with port address translation if the first data is in an IPv4 protocol and the performing a network address translation protocol translation with port address translation if the first data is in an IPv6 protocol share the at least one common IPv4 address and a plurality of port addresses so as to transparently assign the at least one common IPv4 address to either the IPv4 host or the IPv6 host.