Patent ID: 7895312

Claim:
A method for sharing a subnet of IP addresses among a plurality of network devices in an access network, the access network including a head end complex, a plurality of nodes, and a plurality of intermediate network devices, each of the plurality of intermediate network devices being associated with a first IP subnet, the method comprising: configuring a first device of the plurality of intermediate network devices to handle data parcel traffic using a traffic handling protocol which allows the first device to share the first IP subnet with the plurality of intermediate network devices; sharing the first IP subnet with the first device and the other plurality of intermediate network devices in a manner which does not utilize a route injection protocol; sharing the first IP subnet with the first device and the other plurality of intermediate network devices in a manner which does not utilize a bridging protocol and; sharing the first IP subnet with the first device and the other plurality of intermediate network devices without subdividing the first IP subnet into smaller subgroups; wherein each of the plurality of intermediate network devices is a distributed cable modem termination system (DCMTS).