In one embodiment, a method comprises a network device receiving one or more unsolicited data packets output by a plurality of source network devices, each unsolicited data packet comprising a corresponding link layer header and a corresponding network layer header; the network device parsing, from each unsolicited data packet within at least one of its corresponding link layer header or corresponding network layer header, a time type-length-value (TLV) element specifying a corresponding transmission time of the data packet from one or more corresponding source network devices, and a location TLV element specifying a corresponding location of the corresponding one or more source network devices; and the network device determining its corresponding location based on the time TLV elements and the location TLV elements parsed from the respective unsolicited data packets.