Patent ID: 6996084

Claim:
A method for use in delivering network messages, the method comprising: (a) receiving at a first router a network layer address of a node, the first router and the node both being on a sub-network that is topologically foreign with respect to the network layer address of the node; (b) sending from the first router the received network layer address of the node and a network layer address of the first router toward a second router, the second router being on a sub-network that is topologically foreign with respect to the network layer address of the node; (c) receiving at the first router a message tunneled toward the first router by the second router in response to receiving a message at the second router having a destination address of the node; (d) de-tunneling the tunneled message; and (e) sending the de-tunneled message toward the node; whereby (a)-(e) proceed without requiring communication with any node on a sub-network that is a topologically home sub-network with respect to the network layer address of the nodes.