Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for translating a static identifier including a telephone number into a dynamically assigned network address

US5974453A · kind A · utility

197Cited by
6References
27Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 8, 1997
Grant dateOct 26, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 8, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L2101/604
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and apparatus for translating a static identifier into a dynamically assigned network address. In one embodiment, a dynamic database address is used to access a dynamic database. A static identifier corresponding to the device to be contacted is provided, and the dynamic database returns an appropriate dynamically assigned network address corresponding to the static identifier. A static identifier includes a telephone number arranged in a predetermined format to which a static portion is appended. An Internet Domain Name System (DNS) domain may be used as the static appended portion. This translation of a static identifier into a dynamically assigned network address may be applied to DNS servers. A system of the present invention includes a network, an intermittently connected device, and a dynamic database server. The device has a static identifier and an assigned network address. The dynamic database stores the static identifier and the assigned network address when the intermittently connected device sends a log on request to the database server. The intermittently connected device and the dynamic database server may communicate using the Dynamic Host Configuration Prot…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.