Patent ID: 8732281

Claim:
A data processing apparatus, comprising: one or more electronic digital processors; Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server logic coupled to the one or more processors; an active leasequery channel response logic coupled to the DHCP server logic which when executed causes the one or more processors to perform: receiving, from a particular DHCP client among a plurality of DHCP clients, an active leasequery initiation message requesting the DHCP server logic to actively send update messages about changes in network address leases that the DHCP server logic manages; wherein the active leasequery initiation message comprises a channel identifier value; wherein the channel identifier value indicates a particular class of two or more DHCP clients, of the plurality of DHCP clients, wherein the two or more DHCP clients in the particular class of DHCP clients share a same set of attributes; determining whether the channel identifier value matches a client class that the DHCP server logic manages; in response to determining that the channel identifier value does match a client class identifier that the DHCP server logic manages, sending, to the particular DHCP client, a plurality of DHCP response messages describing any changes in network address leases that the DHCP server logic performs only for the particular class of the DHCP clients that are in the matched client class; wherein each of the plurality of DHCP response messages is sent in response to the single active leasequery initiation message comprising the channel identifier value indicating the particular class of DHCP clients, and the single active leasequery initiation message is received by a unicast address.