Patent ID: 7620724

Claim:
In a network of computing devices interoperating via a peer networking protocol, a peer networking host system comprising: a programming interface supporting interaction with software for a logical device having a set of device services; a discovery server operating to respond to discovery requests in the peer networking protocol received at the peer networking host system from computing devices on the network that seek discovery inclusive of the logical device; a description server operating to respond to requests from computing devices on the network in the peer networking protocol for data descriptive of the logical device; a control server operating to proxy service control commands from computing devices on the network in the peer networking protocol by invoking respective of the device services corresponding to the service control commands; and a service description-to-interface definition conversion utility operating to convert a service description of the device services served by the description server in the peer networking protocol into an interface definition according to an interface definition language for an object interface for compiling to said object interface, wherein the control server invoking respective of the device services corresponding to the service control commands permits a service control command from said computing devices on the network based on the service description to invoke the service through the object interface.