Patent ID: 8073936

Claim:
A method comprising: associating a network identity of a first device with a location of the first device, wherein the location is a geographic location or a civil location, and wherein the network identity is an Internet Protocol (IP) address; selecting a location granularity, wherein the selected location granularity identifies the location with either more precision or less precision, wherein information identifying the location conforms to the selected location granularity, and the selected location granularity is selected based on an identity of a device requesting the information identifying the location; and sending a packet, wherein the packet comprises the information identifying the location and the network identity, wherein the associating the network identity with the location comprises: storing a set of information identifying a network port of a second device and the network identity of the first device in response to detecting an identity protocol packet being sent to the first device, wherein an identity protocol assigns the network identity to the first device, and wherein the first device is coupled to the network port of the second device; and adding the information identifying the location of the first device to the set of information, wherein the associating the network identity with the location is performed by a device other than the first device.