Patent ID: 7761580

Claim:
A computing device comprising a first component capable of initiating the establishment of a connection that facilitates data communication to a second component, said computing device configured to: generate a component identifier for the first component in accordance with an identifier generating algorithm; identify a current connection between the first and second components; transmit the component identifier for the first component to the second component; receive a component identifier for the second component; perform a comparison based on a relative order position of the component identifiers for the first and second components to identify the first component as one of a controller and a responder; and initiate an establishing of a designated connection between the first and second components if the first component is identified as the controller, said establishing comprising determining whether at least one connection other than the current connection exists between the first and second components that neither the first and second components knows to be broken, if said at least one connection other than the current connection does not exist, identifying the current connection as the designated connection, and if said at least one connection other than the current connection exists, identifying a connection as the designated connection from a group that includes the current connection and the at least one connection other than the current connection; wherein the identifier generating algorithm is adapted to ensure that component identifiers generated by the algorithm are orderable and substantially unique.