Patent ID: 8799443

Claim:
A combined network system comprising: a first network of a combined network having a plurality of electronic devices, the first network operating under a first network protocol; one or more additional networks of the combined network, each additional network having one or more electronic devices, the one or more additional networks including at least a second network operating under a second network protocol; and a discovery protocol for discovery of devices in the combined network; wherein the first network protocol provides for determining a unique identifier based on a unique designation for each device operating under the first network protocol, and wherein the second network protocol provides for determining a physical address and a logical address for each device operating under the second network protocol; wherein each of the plurality of devices in the first network transmits messages according to the first network protocol providing identification and capability information to each other device in the first network, and wherein each of the one or more devices in the second network transmits messages according to the second network protocol providing identification and capability information to each other device in the second network; wherein the discovery protocol includes generation by a first device of a listing of the devices in the combined network based on one or more messages received by the first device according to the first network protocol and one or more messages received by the first device according to the second network protocol.