Patent ID: 7792114

Claim:
A method for providing enhanced functionality in a shared-medium network comprising: receiving, at a first device from a second device, via a shared-communications channel a first message that comprises a destination address field containing an address different from an address of the first device, wherein: said destination address field comprises a first address subfield and a second address subfield, and the content of said first address subfield indicates a specific requested control function set that defines a predetermined set of one or more functions; decoding information in the first address subfield to determine the specific control function set requested; determining, at a first protocol layer, that the specific control function set requested is available at the first device; and passing at least a portion of the content of the second address field to a higher-protocol layer for processing, wherein the information from the second address subfield determines at least one function selected from the one or more functions associated with the specific control function set to be processed at the higher-protocol layer.