Patent ID: 7539770

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) client in an Internet Protocol (IP) host; and a mobile host communicatively coupled to the DHCP client; wherein the DHCP client is responsive to submit a DHCP request from a foreign agent by generating a DHCP request comprising a protocol field, a source IP address and a gateway IP address (giaddr), wherein the protocol field is set to the Media Access Control (MAC) address of the Mobile Host, the source IP address is set to a predefined value indicative that a source IP address has not been assigned and the gateway IP address is set to a predefined value indicative that a gateway IP address has not been assigned; wherein the mobile host is configured to be responsive to receiving the DHCP request with the protocol field is set to the Media Access Control (MAC) address of the Mobile Host, the source IP address is set to predefined value indicative that a source IP address has not been assigned and the gateway IP address is set to a predefined value indicative that a gateway IP address has not been assigned to add an IP in IP encapsulation header with a source address and a destination address to the DHCP request; wherein the predefined value indicative that a source IP address has not been assigned is zero, the predefined value indicative that a gateway IP address has not been assigned is zero, and the predetermined address indicative that the source address is undefined is zero; wherein the mobile host sets the destination address of the IP in IP encapsulation header to an unicast address of the foreign agent; and wherein the mobile host sets the source address of the IP in IP encapsulation header to a predetermined address indicative that the source address is undefined.