Patent ID: 8842697

Claim:
A method of allocating addresses, known as MAC addresses, to network devices connected to an electricity distribution network, each network device being provided with a distinct unchangeable serial number, said method being performed by a data concentration apparatus and comprising: sending a discovery demand request in general broadcast mode over said electricity distribution network; receiving at least one discovery notification, in response to the discovery demand request, from a network device not having a MAC address allocated, said network device being identified in the discovery notification by means of the serial number; allocating an available MAC address to the network device that responded to the discovery demand request; sending a first cataloguing request to the network device that responded to the discovery demand request, said first cataloguing request containing the serial number of said network device that responded to the discovery demand request and the MAC address allocated to said network device that responded to the discovery demand request; wherein said method further comprises: storing an association between the serial number of the network device that responded to the discovery demand request and the MAC address allocated to said network device that responded to the discovery demand request; and wherein said each network device being liable to lose the MAC address allocated to said each network device when a given time period has elapsed without communication, said method further comprises: storing an information representative of a moment corresponding to a last sending of a communication frame to the network device that responded to the discovery demand request and, prior to sending a communication frame to the network device that responded to the discovery demand request, sending a second cataloguing request to said network device that responded to the discovery demand request, the sending of the second cataloguing request being performed only if a time period since the moment corresponding to the last sending of the communication frame exceeds a given threshold.