Patent ID: 7839523

Claim:
A printing system comprising: a plurality of networked printing devices, each printing device of the plurality of printing devices comprising: a communication port for operatively communicating with another printing device of the plurality of printing devices via a network, wherein each of the printing devices of the plurality of printing devices is assigned a respective network address for use when communicating via the network; a first printing device of the plurality of printing devices comprising a first communication device having circuitry for being automatically sensed by a second printing device of the plurality of printing devices independently of the network; and the second printing device comprising: a second communication device having circuitry for automatically sensing the presence of the first communication device of the first printing device independently of the network, the second communication device being in physical proximity to the first communication device; and a processor for executing application software for determining the network address of the sensed first printing device via the network, for comparing an identifier corresponding to the first communication device to a stored list of identifiers, and for adding the identifier corresponding to the first communication device to the list if the stored identifier is not on the list, the processor further executing application software for resolving identifiers for establishment of at least one cluster with at least one other printing device of the plurality of networked printing devices; wherein the establishment of the at least one cluster is (i) dynamic and spontaneous, (ii) based on one or more attributes selected by a user, the at least one cluster having a unique name associated therewith, and (iii) independent of an order in which each printing device of the plurality of printing devices joined the at least one cluster; and wherein each printing device of the plurality of printing devices is permitted to join or remove itself from the at least one cluster at any time without affecting the other printing devices that have previously joined the at least one cluster.