A configuration unit of a communication device which communicates a datagram with a configuration request to a configuration server in order to configure a communication device within an industrial automation system, wherein the configuration server allocates to the communication device, in response to the configuration request, at least one first topological device name component assigned to a spatial or hierarchical arrangement of the configuration server, each forwarding distribution unit adds a further topological device name component assigned to a spatial or hierarchical arrangement of the respective forwarding distribution unit, and the configuration unit of the communication device generates the device name thereof from the topological device name components and a name component that is unique within the subnetwork of the device.