Patent ID: 7889678

Claim:
In a method of connecting devices within a digital network of devices wherein the services and functions of the devices and sub-devices of the devices are represented as a plurality of logical units and wherein the logical units comprise one or more logical units that represent the services and control the functions of a single physical device, one or more logical units that represent the services and control the functions of one or more sub-devices of a single physical device, one or more logical units that represent the services and control the functions of a sub-device of a single physical device, and one or more logical units that represent the services and control the functions of a plurality of sub-devices of more than one physical device, the improvement comprising the steps of presenting a list of source logical units from the plurality of logical units to a user, communicating a connection request from a control logical unit to a first logical unit selected by the user to be a source logical unit of a connection, the request including an identification of a second logical unit selected by the user to be a sink logical unit of the connection, wherein the source logical unit controls a plurality of source sub-devices comprising more than one sub-device of a single physical device or a plurality of sub-devices of more than one physical device, and wherein the sink logical unit controls a plurality of sink sub-devices comprising more than one sub-device of a single physical device or a plurality of sub-devices of more than one physical device, identifying a source sub-device for connection to a sink sub-device, wherein the source logical unit determines which of the plurality of source sub-devices it controls is available for connection to a sink sub-device, appending the identity of the source sub-device determined to be available for connection to a sink sub-device to the connection request, communicating the connection request from the source logical unit to the sink logical unit, identifying a sink sub-device for connection to the source sub-device determined to be available for connection to the sink sub-device, wherein the sink logical unit determines which of the plurality of sink sub-devices it controls is available for connection to a source sub-device determined to be available for connection to a sink sub-device, and connecting the source sub-device determined to be available for connection to a sink sub-device to the sink sub-device determined to be available for connection to a source sub-device.