Patent ID: 7593373

Claim:
In a router, a method to route packets from a visiting host connected to a first subnet that is reachable from a first ingress interface to the router, to a communicating host on the first subnet or a second subnet that is reachable from a second ingress interface to the router, comprising the steps of: receiving a packet from the visiting host; examining the packet and ascertaining an address of the communicating host from the packet; and checking if the address of the communicating host for the packet belongs to one of the subnets that are reachable from a one of the ingress interfaces to the router, and if the address of the communicating host belongs to one of the subnets that are reachable from one of the ingress interfaces, sending the packet directly to the communicating host through one of the ingress interfaces, and if the address of the communicating host does not belong to one of the subnets, sending the packet to a home agent for the visiting host to enable the packet to be routed to the communicating host.