Patent ID: 8633975

Claim:
A network based surgical system comprising: a first medical device having a first network interface, the first medical device being an endoscope camera; a second medical device having a second network interface, the second medical device being one of an endoflator, a thermoflator, an electro-surgical unit, and a surgical table; a communications network over which said first medical device, through the first network interface, and said second medical device, through the second network interface, are communicable; wherein the first network interface and the second network interface employ a single Ethernet protocol for communicating device command data and video data over said communications network, wherein said single Ethernet protocol is one of Gigabit Ethernet, 10 gigabit Ethernet, and 100 gigabit Ethernet; and wherein the first network interface has a maximum throughput of at least 1 gigabit/second and greater than a maximum throughput of the second network interface.