A network device may detect packets being transmitted on a network to obtain detected packets, identify Internet Protocol (IP) addresses corresponding to the detected packets, and identify candidate IP subnets that do not include any IP address in the IP addresses corresponding to the detected packets. A particular IP subnet may be selected from the set of candidate IP subnets for allocation to a set of target devices. A network device may identify a set of candidate Internet Protocol (IP) subnets, select a particular IP subnet from the set of candidate IP subnets, and transmit, to other network devices, an advertisement including an intent to use the particular IP subnet. Responsive to determining that none of the other network devices are using the particular IP subnet, the network device may select the particular IP subnet for allocating to a set of target devices.