Patent ID: 8369343

Claim:
A method of virtualizing network devices comprising: determining a plurality of network devices configured for network communication, wherein at least a first network device is physically located on a first local area network (LAN) and at least a second network device is physically located on a second LAN; partitioning the network by determining that the first network device and the second network device can each be virtualized to communicate with an identified subset of the plurality of network devices, while other network devices of the plurality of network devices cannot be virtualized; virtualizing the first network device on the second LAN and virtualizing the second network device on the first LAN by respectively assigning a virtual internet protocol (IP) address to a virtual first network device and a virtual second network device; determining that a data packet from the second network device is addressed to the virtual first network device; translating the virtual IP address associated with the virtual first network device to an IP address of the first network device; and translating an IP address associated with the second network device to the virtual IP address associated with the virtual second network device.