Patent ID: 7508775

Claim:
A method for the automatic configuration of a communications device with a reserved identification number, wherein at least one network node device is provided for administering a subnetwork of a network, wherein at least one virtual network comprising at least one subnetwork is provided, wherein the communications device is assigned to the virtual network, wherein data packets exchanged within the virtual network are tagged with a VLAN identification number, the method comprising: determining subnetwork addressing information by a network element arranged in the network, transmitting a configuration message with the subnetwork addressing information from the network element to the network node device, forwarding the configuration message from the network node device to the virtual network, wherein the configuration message is forwarded as a broadcast message tagged with the VLAN identification number, receiving the broadcast message by the communications device, and configuring the communications device on the basis of the VLAN identification number; wherein on failure of the network element of the communications device a message is sent with a tag number to a second network element, and wherein in the case of no response message being received by the second network element, the send process is repeated by the communications device with a changed tag number, and, wherein in the case in which a response message is received by the second network element, the tag number is used as the identification number.