Discovery and rediscovery protocol method and system

A system that facilitates discovery of agent devices connected to a network, said system comprising:

• at least two discovery aware agent devices connected to the network, each discovery aware agent device configured to receive multicast discovery messages and unicast registration signals from the network and to send to the network discovery acknowledge unicast messages comprising a device address uniquely identifying the discovery aware agent device that sent the unicast discovery acknowledge message;
• a management station connected to the network and configured to send unicast registration messages, multicast discovery messages and multicast rediscovery messages, said multicast discovery messages and multicast rediscovery messages comprising a station address uniquely identifying the management station and a session number uniquely identifying a session;
• wherein the management station is also configured to broadcast the multicast discovery message on the network and to receive in response discovery acknowledge unicast messages comprising at least the device address uniquely identifying the discovery aware agent device sending the discovery acknowledge unicast message and the session number uniquely identifying the session;
• and
• wherein the management station is also configured to send the unicast registration message to each discovery aware agent device from which the management station received a corresponding discovery acknowledge unicast message using the device address provided in the corresponding discovery acknowledge unicast message, said registration message comprising a sequence number based on the session number uniquely identifying the session.

An article of manufacture comprising:

• a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer readable code executable by one or more processors of a management station performing the following:
• at the commencement of a session, broadcasting, from the management station, a multicast discovery message to all agent devices connected to the network, the multicast discovery message comprising a station address uniquely identifying the management station, a session number identifying the session, and command instructions instructing all discovery aware agent devices connected to the network to answer the discovery message;
• receiving, at the management station, discovery acknowledge unicast messages from at least some of the discovery aware agent devices connected to the network, the discovery acknowledge unicast messages comprising at least a device address uniquely identifying the discovery aware agent device sending the discovery acknowledge unicast message and the session number identifying the session;
• and
• sending, from the management station, a unicast registration message to each discovery aware agent device from which the management station received a corresponding discovery acknowledge unicast message using the device address provided in the corresponding discovery acknowledge unicast message, said unicast registration message comprising a sequence number based on the session number identifying the session.