Patent ID: 8194661

Claim:
A method of autoconfiguration of an IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) component in a segmented network, the method comprising: receiving, by a management module of the segmented network, an IPv6 packet; wherein the management module comprises a module of automated computing machinery; determining, by the management module of the segmented network, whether the received IPv6 packet is a router advertisement or a router solicitation; if the received IPv6 packet is a router advertisement, then retrieving, by the management module, through an out-of-band link a destination Media Access Control (‘MAC’) address for an IPv6 component, removing, by the management module from the received IPv6 packet, a MAC address of a sending router, inserting, by the management module, in the packet instead an internal MAC address for forwarding packets to the IPv6 component, removing, by the management module, a multicast destination MAC address, inserting, by the management module, in the packet the destination MAC address of the IPv6 component, and forwarding, by the management module, the packet to the IPv6 component as a unicast message; if the received IPv6 packet is a router solicitation, then removing, by the management module from the packet, the MAC address of the sending IPv6 component, inserting, by the management module, in the packet instead an external MAC address for forwarding packets to a router, and forwarding, by the management module, the packet to the router as a multicast message.