Patent ID: 7096257

Claim:
In a network comprising a plurality of nodes, a method for assigning a different network address to each node of the plurality of nodes, the method comprising each node performing: periodically broadcasting a unique identifier for the node to other nodes of the plurality of nodes, wherein each node has a different unique identifier; receiving unique identifiers for the other nodes; and in an address table comprising a plurality of records, each record corresponding to one of the nodes in the plurality of nodes and including a unique identifier for the node and a network address for the node: if a record containing the unique identifier does not exist, creating a new record and inserting the received unique identifier into the record; and if a record containing the unique identifier does exist, updating the record; and reassigning the network addresses in the records based on the unique identifiers in the records, wherein each node of the plurality of nodes determines which network address to assign to each record in a common predetermined manner.