a communication equipment or router according to the invention includes allocation means for allocating a sub - prefix to at least some of the communication equipments connected to it . fig2 explains how sub - prefixes are allocated in accordance with the invention . an initial prefix p is allocated to a first communication equipment by manual configuration or by any other means ( this process is outside the scope of the present patent application ). this first equipment then assigns a sub - prefix sp 1 to at least a subset of the equipments to which it is connected . this sub - prefix sp 1 comprises a prefix p and a part n 1 . this part n 1 is an individual identifier of the equipment concerned : it distinguishes the equipments from each other within this subset of the connected equipments . according to the invention , the size of this part n 1 ( i . e . the number of bits ) depends on the number of equipments on the subset of connected equipments for which a sub - prefix must be allocated . if x denotes this number , then the size of the field n 1 must be log 2 ( x ) bits . for example , if the first equipment has four equipments to which a sub - prefix must be allocated , then the field n 1 must be of size log 2 ( 4 )= 2 , and the following sub - prefixes may be used , for example ( the notation indicates that the prefix p is concatenated with the subsequent two bits ): each of these equipments therefore receives a different sub - prefix sp 1 ( identical prefix p but different part n 1 ). these equipments then proceed in the same manner and determine sub - prefixes sp 2 for other communication equipments . these sub - prefixes similarly consist of the sub - prefixes sp 1 ( considered as prefixes , as it were ) and different individual identifiers n 2 for each of the equipments , the size of which depends on their number . similarly , these equipments in turn allocate sub - prefixes sp 3 consisting of the sub - prefixes sp 2 and individual identifiers n 3 . the process continues progressively in this way until sub - prefixes have been allocated to the whole of the communication network . fig3 shows this allocation process in more detail in relation to a more concrete example . the equipment r 1 acquires a prefix by a method that is outside the scope of this patent application . this prefix is 4001 : 0660 : 3510 :: 0 / 48 , for example . the meaning of this format is explained in the documents cited above on address formats in the ipv6 protocol . it is nevertheless important to note that here the “/ 48 ” indicates the length in bits of the prefix , which is 64 bits maximum . the symbols “:” are merely separators for convenience of reading and the symbol “::” indicates that sufficient “ 0 ” are inserted to pad out the prefix to the indicated 48 bits ( thus a single symbol “::” is possible ). this network equipment r 1 has “ son ” equipments r 2 and r 3 to which it must allocate sub - prefixes . as there are two of these son equipments , a single bit is necessary for the individual identifier ( log 2 ( 2 )= 1 ). the equipment r 2 will have the value “ 0 ” for its individual identifier and the equipment r 3 will have the value “ 1 ”. consequently , the respective sub - prefixes of the equipments r 2 and r 3 are : note that the sub - prefixes are one bit longer than the initial prefix . the second sub - prefix has the value “ 8 ” in thirteenth position , i . e . “ 1000 ” in binary . this “ 1 ” corresponds to the individual identifier of the equipment r 3 . the equipment r 2 proceeds in exactly the same way and therefore allocates sub - prefixes depending on the sub - prefix of r 2 to its “ son ” equipments r 4 and r 5 . these sub - prefixes are respectively : for the second prefix , the value “ 4 ” in thirteenth position is written “ 0100 ” in binary . the first “ 0 ” is the individual identifier of the equipment r 2 and the subsequent “ 1 ” is that of the equipment r 5 . the equipment r 3 has three son equipments to which it must allocate a sub - prefix . two bits are therefore necessary for allocating an individual identifier to these three equipments r 6 , r 7 and r 8 , taking the values “ 00 ”, “ 10 ” and “ 11 ”, respectively . for the third sub - prefix , for example , the value “ e ” is written “ 1110 ” in binary . the first “ 1 ” represents the individual identifier of the equipment r 3 and the subsequent two bits “ 11 ” constitute the individual identifier of the equipment r 8 . the communication equipments of the invention allocate sub - prefixes in an optimized manner . this implies at least two significant advantages : firstly , by increasing the size of the sub - prefixes by only the strictly necessary length , the mechanism of the invention economizes on the resource represented by the address prefix . the increase in the number of bits used is limited on each step , and it is therefore possible to descend lower in the tree formed by a network , and therefore to allocate a sub - prefix to a greater number of communication equipments . secondly , the invention allocates prefixes that can be “ aggregated ”: the prefix of each equipment contains the prefix of its “ father ” equipment . for example , in fig3 , the equipment r 7 contains the prefix of the equipment r 3 and therefore , by recurrence , of the equipment r 1 . consequently , the equipment r 1 does not need to store in its routing table as many entries as it has “ grandsons ”: as many entries as there are “ sons ” suffices , i . e . two rather than five . if a data packet carries an address containing the prefix of the equipment r 7 , to route it correctly it suffices to have in its routing table an entry corresponding to the prefix of the equipment r 3 . this property is extremely beneficial as it minimizes the size of the routing table and thereby improves the performance of the communication equipments .