METHOD OF DISCOVERY AND COMMUNICATION WITH INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT

摘要

A method, a computer-readable medium, a software application, and a com¬ puter-based apparatus for initially establishing communication with a device (110, 120, 130, 140, 150, 160) on a local area network (LAN) (100, 200) in a substantially automated manner. A broadcast discovery request is transmitted (310) over the network and the network is monitored (320) for responses from devices connected to the network. A responding device is selected and a determination (350) is made as to if a primary IP address of the selected device is within a predetermined sub¬ net. Otherwise, a determination (355) is made as to if a current alternate IP ad¬ dress of the selected device is within the predetermined subnet. Otherwise, a new alternate IP address is generated (359) and may be conditionally assigned (390) to the selected device. One of the primary IP address, the current alternate IP ad¬ dress, or the new alternate IP address is used to connect to the selected device for the purpose of communicating with the selected device.