US Patent 11178060 Self forming local fabric

Examples include blocking an interface of a sponsor networking device from receiving data packets and receiving at the sponsor networking device an authentication packet from a first networking device. The first networking device is physically connected to the interface. Examples also include automatically setting by the first networking device, a unique local address for the first networking device; receiving, at the sponsor networking device, a local data packet from the first networking device, and translating, by the sponsor networking device, the local data packet to an off-fabric data packet.