DISCOVERY AND REDISCOVERY PROTOCOL METHOD AND SYSTEM

摘要

A management station discovers agent devices connected to a network bybroadcasting discovery messages having a session number and waiting fordiscoveryacknowledge unicast messages from at least some of the discovery aware agentdevicesconnected to the network. The management station receives the discoveryacknowledgeunicast messages from the agent devices and each message comprises the sessionnumberand an address uniquely identifying the agent device sending the discoveryacknowledgeunicast message. The management station then sends a unicast registrationmessage havinga sequence number based on the session number of the discovery message. Atthat point,the agent device will be registered permitting further communication to theregistereddiscovery aware agent device. The management station will send, periodically,rediscoverymessages having the same session number as the discovery message. Thediscovery awareagent devices connected to the network which have not previously responded toadiscovery or rediscovery message having the same session number or have notreceived aregistration message with a sequence number related to the session number willrespond tosubsequent rediscovery messages. The agent devices will not respond tosubsequentrediscovery messages if the agent device has previously received a unicastregistrationmessage with a sequence number related to the session number of the multicastdiscoverymessage or the subsequent multicast rediscovery message.