SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR HANDLING ADDRESS RESOLUTION PROTOCOL REQUESTS

1 . A computing-device program product for handling address resolution protocol requests, the computing-device program product comprising code executable on an intermediary device in a local area network, the intermediary device comprising data memory for mapping Internet protocol addresses to physical layer addresses for devices in the local area network,

(a) the code being operable on the intermediary device to receive a multicast address resolution protocol request having an Internet protocol address for a device on the local area network,

(b) the code being further operable, on receipt of the multicast address resolution protocol request, to extract the Internet protocol address contained in the multicast address resolution protocol request,

(c) the code being further operable to access the data memory in the intermediary device to obtain a physical layer address mapped to the extracted Internet protocol address if the Internet protocol address is present in the data memory, and

(d) the code being further operable to forward a directed address resolution protocol request to the local area network device corresponding to the physical layer address obtained from the intermediary device data memory.

2 . The computing-device program product of claim 1 in which the data memory in the intermediary device comprises an address resolution protocol cache and in which the physical layer addresses stored in the cache are media access control addresses.

3 . The computing-device program product of claim 1 in which the intermediary device is an access point.

4 . The computing-device program product of claim 3 in which the local area network comprises devices which are reachable only by using the access point.

5 . The computing-device program product of claim 1 in which the intermediary device is a DHCP server.

6 . A computing-device implemented method for handling address resolution protocol requests, the method being implemented on an intermediary device in a local area network, the intermediary device comprising data memory for mapping Internet protocol addresses to physical layer addresses for devices in the local area network, the method comprising the following steps:

(a) receiving a multicast address resolution protocol request having an Internet protocol address for a device on the local area network,

(b) extracting the Internet protocol address contained in the multicast address resolution protocol request,

(c) accessing the data memory in the intermediary device to obtain a physical layer address mapped to the extracted Internet protocol address if the Internet protocol address is present in the data memory, and

(d) forwarding a directed address resolution protocol request to the local area network device corresponding to the physical layer address obtained from the intermediary device data memory.

7 . The method of claim 6 in which the data memory in the intermediary device comprises an address resolution protocol cache and in which the physical layer addresses stored in the cache are media access control addresses, the step of accessing the data memory in the intermediary device comprising the step of accessing the address resolution protocol cache to obtain the media access control address mapped to the extracted Internet protocol address.

8 . The method of claim 6 in which the steps implemented on the intermediary device are implemented on an access point.

9 . The method of claim 8 in which the local area network comprises devices which are reachable only by using the access point.

10 . The method of claim 6 in which the steps implemented on the intermediary device are implemented on a DHCP server.