Modifying multicast domain name service (MDNS) responses to control assignment of discoverable resource providing devices available on network

摘要

An apparatus for helping with multicast domain name service (MDNS) discovery includes one or more processors configured to receive a first MDNS query from the resource seeking device, receive a first MDNS response from the resource providing device, and generate a second MDNS response according to the first MDNS response. The second MDNS response is generated at least by including a resource record from the first MDNS response and setting a time-to-live (TTL) value of the resource record in the second MDNS response to be lower than an original TTL value as specified for the resource record in the first MDNS response. The second MDNS response is sent to the resource seeking device in response to the first MDNS query. A hospitality establishment may thereby soft assign a media device to a user device while retaining the ability to change the media device assigned to the user device.