Patent ID: 7587493

Claim:
A method for managing network addresses, comprising: receiving a communication from a device in a packet-switched data communications network; allocating an available network address from a local network address pool if the communication includes a connection request, the local network address pool associated with a network edge device configured to accept connection requests, the network address for identifying the device in routing one or more messages between the device and one or more other devices in the packet-switched data communications network according to a message routing protocol, wherein the available network address is an Internet Protocol (IP) address and the IP address is used in a destination field of a subsequent packet communicated to the device; determining whether the local network address pool should be adjusted; sending an alarm message to a network pool manager when the network address pool should be adjusted; and storing a network address allocation when the communication includes a network address allocation, wherein the local network address pool includes a high watermark that indicates a measurement of the maximum number of network addresses used by a network edge device during a predetermined time period, the determining including ascertaining whether the high watermark of a local network address pool exceeds a high watermark limit and indicating one or more network address pools should be reallocated to give more network addresses to the network edge device when the high watermark exceeds the high watermark limit, and wherein the reallocating includes allocating a network address from network addresses reclaimed from other network address pools when the high watermark exceeds the high watermark limit, and reallocating one or more network address pools to reclaim network addresses from the local network address pool when the high watermark is less than the high watermark limit and the low watermark is greater than the low watermark limit.