Patent ID: 8892775

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a receiver module that receives a communication message at a managed device in a sequential chain of managed devices, the communication message comprising one of a plurality of message types, the chain of managed devices comprising a chain of Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) devices; a transmitter module that transmits the communication message to a remote device comprising a next device in the sequential chain of managed devices; and an addressing module, coupled to the receiver module and the transmitter module, that determines the message type of the communication message; the addressing module further determines whether an address associated with the communication message indicates a particular sub-portion of the communication message designated for a local processor as a destination in response to determining that the message type is a broadcast message type, the communication message comprising plurality of sub-portions, each managed device of the sequential chain of managed devices being designated a distinct sub-portion of the communication message, wherein each device in the sequential chain of managed devices receives and transmits the communication message intact with each sub-portion for the broadcast message type, wherein the address is stored in an address field associated with the communication message, wherein the local processor generates a message payload and injects the message payload into a designated sub-portion of a message body portion of the communication message in response to the addressing module determining that the message type associated with the communication message is a poll message type, wherein the designated sub-portion of the message body portion of the communication message is determined by the addressing module in response to the address, wherein all or a portion of the receiver module, the transmitter module, and the addressing module comprise one or more of logic hardware and executable code, the executable code stored on one or more computer readable storage media and executed by a processor.