Patent ID: 7028083

Claim:
A method executed with a computer of extending an arbitrary sparse set of IP blocks having associated mapping data into an IP address block map that is consistent with the arbitrary sparse set of IP blocks having associated mapping data, comprising: defining a set of upper bound blocks; defining a unanimity criterion that determines whether a set of mapping data are sufficiently in agreement to be reduced to a single piece of mapping data; using the set of upper bound blocks to partition a space of IP addresses into territories, wherein each territory represents a largest set of IP addresses to which a piece of mapping data may be extended, and wherein a piece of mapping data may be extended to the territory only if (a) the territory includes an IP block from the arbitrary sparse set of IP blocks that has that piece of mapping data and (b) the unanimity criterion applies to all of the IP blocks from the arbitrary sparse set that are included in the territory; generating the IP address block map by partitioning the territory of each upper bound block into a largest possible sub-block in which the unanimity criterion is satisfied and extending the mapping data in each such sub-block to all of the territory of that sub-block.