Dynamically sharing a pool of IP addresses

US6993583B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• International Business Machines Corporation · US

Inventors

• Jeffrey Wayne Anderson · Palatine, US
• Travis Daren Appleman · Raleigh, US
• William Buchanan · Wake Forest, US
• Simon Chu · Chapel Hill, US
• David Green · Hillsborough, US
• William Joseph Piazza · Holly Springs, US
• Karl Ross Shultz · Cary, US
• Paul Brian Tippett · Durham, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Feb 28, 2002
• Grant date: Jan 31, 2006
• Expiry date: Jun 7, 2024

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04L67/1029
• WIPO field: Digital communication
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A method, system and computer program product for dynamically sharing a limited supply of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses among a larger number of servers. A manager coupled between the Internet and a plurality of servers may receive a request for an IP address associated with a domain name from a client coupled to the Internet. The manager may be configured to map the domain name into an IP address assigned to the server hosting the web site of the domain name. Each assigned IP address may be valid only for a limited time. Once the time the assigned IP address is valid has expired, the assigned IP address may be returned to the pool of available IP addresses thereby allowing a smaller number of IP addresses to be dynamically shared among a larger number of servers.