Patent ID: 8072990

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, in a first server and from a second server, a request for a connection between a device and a network; sending, from the first server to a third server, a request for a plurality of network addresses; receiving, in the first server and from the third server, the plurality of network addresses; caching the plurality of network addresses in the first server; storing, in a database of the third server, a plurality of entries, where each entry, of the plurality of entries, includes information regarding a particular network address, where the information indicates: whether the particular network address has been cached by a particular server, an identity of the particular server that has cached the particular network address, when the network address has been cached, and whether the particular network address has been assigned to a particular device; assigning, by the first server and in response to the request for the connection between the device and the network, a first network address, of the plurality of network addresses, to the device; and updating the database in the third server, upon assigning the first network address to the device, where the updating includes: updating a first entry, of the plurality of entries, that is associated with the first network address, to indicate that the first network address has been assigned to the device.