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A method for translating non internet unique addresses of a home network device to an internet unique address for internet communication through a router. Every device within a given home network is assigned three addresses:(i) a configured address identical to the network address of the router enab

A method for translating non internet unique addresses of a home network device to an internet unique address for internet communication through a router. Every device within a given home network is assigned three addresses:(i) a configured address identical to the network address of the router enabling access to an Internet; (ii) a logical address visible only to the other devices in the same home network; and (iii) a medium access control ("MAC") address. Every packet originating from a home network source device includes its MAC address, the router MAC address, its configured address and the network destination address, and is forwarded to its destination through the router. The router examines the network destination address to determine whether the communication is intranet or internet. For intranet communications the router replaces the configured address of the home network source device with the logical address of the home network source device, the logical address of the home network destination device with the configured address, its MAC address with the MAC address of the home network destination device, and forwards the packet to the home network destination device. For Internet communications the router forwards the packet along the Internet without replacing any of the source or destination information in the headers of the packet. Based on the source MAC address, however, the router records the logical address of the home network source device as well as the DA, SP, DP and PT in order to identify a response to the packet from the Internet destination device.

대표청구항 ▼

[ What is claimed is:] [1.] In a data communications system comprising an internet and at least one home network, each of said home networks comprising a plurality of home network devices and having access to said internet through a router with an internet-unique network address, said system employi

[ What is claimed is:] [1.] In a data communications system comprising an internet and at least one home network, each of said home networks comprising a plurality of home network devices and having access to said internet through a router with an internet-unique network address, said system employing a method for network address translation of a packet having at least a network layer and a datalink layer, originating from one of said home network devices, said method comprising the following steps:including in the network layer of said packet a configured logical address to represent the network layer source address of the source home network device, and a logical destination address, said configured logical address being common to each home network device with a common home network, and its router,including in the datalink layer of said packet the MAC address of said router as the datalink layer destination address of the packet;forwarding said packet from said source home network device to said router,determining whether said packet is intended for a home network device;if said packet is intended for a home network device, replacing said configured logical address at the network layer of said packet with the logical address of said source home network device, replacing said logical address of the destination home network device with said configured logical address, and replacing said router MAC address with the MAC address of the destination home network device;if said packet is intended for an internet destination device, recording packet identifying information; andforwarding said packet to its intended destination device.