Patent ID: 7653743

Claim:
In a network system that connects a central location to a large number of network devices, a method for controlling a number of messages originating at the network devices comprising the steps of: advertising an available router connection for handling the messages at a router and at an application-level to a specific network device by announcing a network address of the router and a port number of the router for handling the messages, wherein the advertising of availability of the router connection is based on the loading of the router; connecting the specific network device to the router for handling the messages using a connection request addressed to the network address of the router and the port number announced by the available router connection advertised, wherein the specific network device is connected to the router only after receiving the router connection availability announcement; assigning a router ID of the router connected and a device Global Unique Identifier (GUID) to the specific network device in response to the connecting, the device GUID permits the router for handling the messages to identify the specific network device without using network address of the specific network device; sending subsequent messages from the specific network device to the central location through the available router connection connected, the subsequent messages being identified by the device GUID; and as a function of the advertising of the available router connection to which the specific network device responds with the connection request, allowing a limited number of the messages to be originated at the specific network device; wherein the messages are connection request messages originating from the network devices requesting that a connection be made to the central location; and wherein the device GUID includes the router ID of the router to which the specific network device is connected to, a network ID, and a device ID.