Patent ID: 8812723

Claim:
A method comprising: at a device of an independent basic service set (IBSS) network, receiving a request to register in the IBSS network from an enrollee device, and responding to the enrollee with information representing (i) an address for the enrollee device, and (ii) a finite quantity of addresses to be assigned to future enrollee devices, wherein said responding to the enrollee includes assigning, by the device, the address for the enrollee, and providing the assigned address for the enrollee and information representing multiple subsets of addresses, each one of the multiple subsets including a predefined quantity of addresses to be assigned to future enrollees, wherein said assigning the address for the enrollee device comprises determining, by the device, that there is at least one available address in a subset of addresses from among the multiple subsets that was designated by the device to assign, by the device, addresses to future enrollee devices, and in response to said determining that there is at least one available address in the designated subset, assigning, by the device, the address for the enrollee device from the designated subset; and wherein said providing the assigned address for the enrollee and information representing multiple subset of addresses comprises determining, by the device, that there is at least one subset of addresses from among the multiple subsets from which to assign addresses to future enrollee devices, in addition to the designated subset, and transmitting, by the device, a response to the enrollee device including (i) the address assigned by the device for the enrollee device, and (ii) the at least one additional finite subset.