Managing address spaces across network elements

A network device configured to manage an address space across network elements, the network device comprising:

• one or more processors configured to execute a pool manager, the pool manager configured to:
• automatically distribute a first block of network addresses to a first network element acting, for a first network, as a first address allocation server to assign the first block of network addresses to a first set of client devices coupled to the first network;
• automatically distribute a second block of contiguous network addresses to a second network element acting, for a second network, as a second address allocation server to assign the second block of network addresses to a second set of client devices coupled to the second network;
• interface with the first address allocation server to determine a first number of available network addresses within the first block of network addresses that are available for allocation to first clients;
• interface with the second address allocation server to determine a second number of available network addresses within the second block of network addresses that are available for allocation to second clients;
• and
• dynamically manage, based on the first number of available network addresses within the first block of network addresses that are available for allocation to the first clients and the second number of available network addresses within the second block of network addresses that are available for allocation to the second clients, a size of the first block of network addresses and a size of the second block of network addresses to address inefficient distribution of available network addresses within either or both of the first block of network addresses and the second block of network addresses;
• wherein the one or more processors are configured to issue a preemptive reclaim request in which the first network element must return a portion of the first block of network addresses distribution to another network element, and wherein the one or more processors are further configured to obtain an indication that the portion of the first block of network addresses has been reclaimed.

A method of distributing a first block of network addresses, the method comprising:

• receiving, by a network address manager proxy executed by a first network element responsible for allocating the first block of network addresses within a first network and from a network address manager executed by a computing device, an allocation of the first block of network addresses;
• interfacing, by the network address manager proxy and with the network address manager, to specify a first number of available network addresses within the first block of network addresses that are available for allocation to first clients;
• receiving, by the network address manager proxy and from the network address manager responsive to specifying the first number of available network addresses, one or more requests that manage a size of the first block of network addresses to address inefficient distribution of available network addresses within either or both of the first block of network addresses or a second block of network addresses distributed by a second network device for a second network;
• and
• adapting, by the network address manager proxy and responsive to the one or more requests, the size of the first block of network addresses.