Importance

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Abstract

A network including one or more network subnets, a plurality of network participating devices (NPDs) and at least one management server. Each NPD initializes, gathers its status information and sends an initial beacon packet on each subnet to which it is coupled. The beacon packets are preferably confined to the subnet and are not copied to other subnets. For each subnet, each NPD collects beacon packets sent by other NPDs on the same subnet and stores the status information into a local status database including consolidated state information of all the NPDs in the group. For each subnet, each NPD periodically sends subsequent beacon packets with its status information so that all of the active NPDs have the most recent status information for all other NPDs of the same subnet. For each subnet, each NPD examines its configuration and determines whether it can serve as a group master. If a NPD can serve as master, it periodically determines whether it is ASC group master of each subnet to which it is coupled using the same criterion as the other NPD(s) on the same subnet. The same criterion is used to ensure a single master, so that only one ASC group master is selected for each group or subnet.

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First Claim