Patent ID: 7827310

Claim:
A method for verifying subscriber host connectivity, comprising: obtaining network address lease information associated with a subscriber host, wherein the subscriber host uses a lease to communicate over a network; sending to the subscriber host a unicast address resolution protocol (ARP) request to determine a status of a connection of the subscriber host with the network when a session-less networking protocol that does not retain host connectivity state information is employed for communication; determining, based at least in part on whether a response to the ARP request is received from the subscriber host, whether the subscriber host remains connected to the network; and in the event that a response to the ARP request is not received from the subscriber host, concluding that the subscriber host is no longer connected to the network and terminating the subscriber host's lease; wherein sending to the subscriber host a unicast ARP request to determine a status of a connection of the subscriber host with the network comprises periodically sending the unicast ARP request to the subscriber host to verify the subscriber host's continued connection to the network until the subscriber host's lease is terminated.