Patent ID: 8051157

Claim:
A discovery apparatus among a plurality of networks including a plurality of clients, the discovery apparatus comprising: a transceiver which receives a shared space create message requesting creation of a shared space from a first client within a first network of the plurality of networks, transmits a notification of creation of the shared space to the first client within the first network and a second client within a second network of the plurality of network, receives first shared information from the first client and second shared information from the second client, the first shared information being created by intrinsic information of each of a plurality of clients within the first network and second shared information being created by intrinsic information of each of a plurality of clients within the second network of the plurality of networks; a storage unit which receives the first shared information and the second shared information from the transceiver and stores the first shared information and the second shared information received from the transceiver; and a controller which creates the shared space in accordance with the shared space create message received through the transceiver, controls to store the first shared information and the second shared information in the shared space, and controls to transmit shared information updated in the storage unit to all clients joining in the shared space, wherein the intrinsic information of each of the plurality of clients within the first network is collected by using a multicast message broadcasted onto the first network from the first client and comprises an IP address and a port number of a corresponding client of the plurality of clients within the first network, and the intrinsic information of each of the plurality of clients within the second network is collected by using a multicast message broadcasted onto the second network from the second client of the plurality of clients within the second network and comprises an IP address and a port number of a corresponding client of the plurality of clients within the second network, and wherein the first and second networks are Ad hoc networks.