Patent ID: 7185079

Claim:
A machine-implemented method for management of network addresses comprising the steps of: determining an address utilization state of a network, wherein the address utilization state is based on: a percentage of a certain address space allocated to a network service provider that is in use by at least one of a physical interface and a sub-interface of network access devices that couple subscribers of the network service provider to the network, over a total address space available to the network service provider; a percentage of address space that is in use at a physical interface over the total address space allocated by the owner; or a percentage of address space in use at a physical interface over the amount of address space allocated to that interface and to a network service provider; and wherein the determining comprises at last one of: collecting the address utilization data from at least one Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server of the network; or polling a broadband terminal directly to obtain the address utilization data therefrom; and performing a specified action on addresses from the certain address space in response to the determining the address utilization state wherein at least one attribute of the certain address space is changeable with the specified wherein the performing the specified action comprises: defining to an address assignor one or more ranges of network addresses wherein the ranges include addresses that are assignable to devices on a network; and configuring at least one routing means on the network to support routing transmissions to at least one of the network addresses; specifying to the address assignor one or more sub-networks to which any of the one or more defined network address ranges are assignable; reserving a network address for a particular router means associated with a particular sub-network from the one or more sub-networks, wherein the reserved network address is from a defined address range assigned to the particular sub-network; and specifying to the address assignor a particular default routing means for a particular device on the network that is assigned a network address from any of the one or more defined address ranges.