Patent ID: 8856258

Claim:
A host device, comprising: a processor; a network communication unit connected to a network to communicate with one or more external network devices having an Internet Protocol (IP) address; a local communication unit locally connected to at least one slave device, wherein one or more of the at least one slave devices is physically connected to the host device and do not operate according to an IP address; a virtualization unit that virtualizes the at least one slave device as a virtual network device within the network in which the one or more external network devices are connected, by allocating an IP address to the at least one slave device using an IP address and available port of the host device, when the at least one slave device is connected to the host device; a storage unit to store the IP address of the at least one slave device; and a controller that controls the virtualized at least one slave device as a virtual network device, wherein the virtualization unit uses the processor to virtualize the at least one slave device or to allocate the IP address to the at least one slave device, wherein the virtualization unit selectively allocates the IP address to the at least one slave device by using a same IP address previously allocated to the at least one slave device or by using a different IP address each time the at least one slave device is connected to the host device.