Patent ID: 7197549

Claim:
A method for on-demand management of Internet Protocol (IP) address pools, the method comprising: allocating an IP address from a local IP address pool designated for a remote domain if a request to connect to said remote domain is received, said local IP address pool comprising one or more of at least one subnet obtained from a global IP address pool, each of said at least one subnet specifying a contiguous set of one or more IP addresses; deallocating an IP address back to said local IP address pool if said IP address is relinquished by a remote user; and apportioning one or more of said at least one subnet between said global IP address pool and said local IP address pool based upon utilization of said local IP address pool by requesting one or more subnet from said global IP address pool if utilization of said local IP address pool exceeds a first threshold and releasing one or more subnet to said global IP address pool if utilization of said local IP address pool falls below a second threshold.