Patent ID: 7408934

Claim:
A method for a first device in a first subnetwork to request a process from a second device in a second subnetwork different from the first subnetwork, comprising: a first broadcast relay in the first subnetwork detecting a first subnetwork network wide broadcast packet in the first subnetwork; in response to the packet having a first subnetwork network-wide destination address, a broadcast host address and a destination port number, the first broadcast relay generating a unicast address changed packet from the detected packet by changing the network wide destination address to a unicast address of a second broadcast relay in the second subnetwork; the first broadcast relay outputting said unicast address changed packet through a router to the second broadcast relay, the router configured to prevent the first subnetwork network wide broadcast packet from reaching the second subnetwork; the second broadcast relay receiving in said second subnetwork the unicast address changed packet addressed to said second receiving broadcast relay; the second broadcast relay generating a second subnetwork-type broadcast packet by changing the destination unicast address of the packet received by said second receiving broadcast relay to an address related to a second subnetwork-type broadcast; the second broadcast relay outputting said generated second subnetwork-type broadcast packet inside said second subnetwork; the second device on the second subnetwork receiving the second subnetwork-type broadcast packet and checking a port number of a protocol segment of the second subnetwork-type broadcast packet; and the second device performing a predetermined process if the port number corresponds to a process of the second device or taking no action if the port number does not correspond to a process of the second device.