A first network element that receives an appropriation message from a second network element that indicates a target address which the second network element intends to appropriate for its use. In response to the appropriation message, the first network element broadcasts a discovery message to a plurality of network elements on the network to request a link-layer address in association with the first target address. The first network element receives a discovery response from the second network element with the first target address and the link-layer address of the second network element. Then the first network element updates a neighbor cache to include a pre-cached neighbor cache entry associating the link-layer address to the first target address. This prevents one or more future neighbor cache misses associated with the first target address.