Patent ID: 7904534

Claim:
A method for configuring network addresses for a node in wireless networks, the method comprising: a) selecting a network address out of an available range of network addresses; b) setting a loop round number to zero; c) determining a number of address resolution protocol (ARP) requests, which is predetermined based on the loop round number; d) setting an ARP request counter to zero; e) beginning listening for ARP responses for the selected network address; f) sending an ARP request for the selected network address over the network using a wireless transmitter of the node; g) incrementing the ARP request counter; h) repeating the steps f) and g) until the ARP request counter equals the number of ARP requests; i) waiting for a timeout period which is predetermined based on the loop round number, for an address resolution protocol response from the network indicating that the selected address is already used by another node of the same network; and j) performing the following steps after every timeout period: in case an ARP response is received indicating that the selected address is already used by another node of the same network, repeating the steps a) to j); in case no ARP response is received indicating the selected address is already used by another node of the same network and the loop round number does not equal a predefined number of rounds, incrementing the loop round number and repeating the steps c) to j); and using in case no ARP response is received indicating that the selected address is already used by another node of the same network and the loop round number equals a predefined number of rounds, using the selected address.