Patent ID: 6842454

Claim:
A method for communicating information over a communications network, comprising: determining a network location of a target device to which a first frame of information is to be sent, the first frame of information being formatted for a first communications protocol and including a device address field configured to store a device identifier; selecting, based on the network location of the target device, an addressing scheme from among plural different addressing schemes; generating the device identifier for the first frame on the basis of the selected addressing scheme, the device identifier corresponding to the target device; encapsulating the first frame of information in a second frame of information formatted for a second communications protocol, the second frame including a destination address field; generating a destination address for the second frame on the basis of the device identifier in the device address field of the first frame; storing the destination address in the destination address field of the second frame; and transmitting the second frame of information over the communications network.