Patent ID: 8107396

Claim:
A method of tracking at least one host in a network on a tracking device, comprising: a) sending a unicast address resolution protocol (ARP) request to the at least one host, wherein the unicast ARP request includes: a target hardware address (THA) field associated with the at least one host with a value set to all zeroes or all ones indicating a missing media access control (MAC) address for the at least one host, a source protocol address (SPA) field associated with a sender of the unicast ARP request with a value set to all zeroes to prevent the at least one host from updating an ARP cache associated with the at least one host with the information in the SPA field, and a target protocol address (TPA) field associated with the at least one host with a value indicating an authenticated IP address of the at least one host stored in a device tracking list that also stores an authenticated MAC address for the at least one host; b) receiving an ARP reply from the at least one host with the missing MAC address supplied by the at least one host; and c) validating the missing MAC address supplied by comparing the missing MAC address to the authenticated MAC address stored in the device tracking list.