Systems and methods of using beacon messages to discover devices across subnets

1. A method of discovering an undetected device to be discovered in a communication network having multiple interconnected nodes, comprising:

transmitting, by a discoverer to the device to be discovered, at least one beacon signal including an IP address to the network and forwarding instructions,

said transmitting based on Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP);

receiving, by the device to be discovered, the at least one beacon signal;

configuring the device to be discovered with the IP addressing information located in the at least one beacon signal; and

configuring the device to be discovered with forwarding instructions located in the at least one beacon signal, to forward the beacon signal to one or more undetected devices downstream; and

transmitting, by the device to be discovered, an advertisement to a server specified by the discoverer.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the discoverer transmits a plurality of beacon signals to the network.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the discoverer transmits the plurality of beacon signals at a predetermined rate to the network.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the discoverer transmits the at least one beacon signal across one or more IP subnets.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the discoverer transmits the at least one beacon signal with information directly addressed to a specific device to be discovered.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the beacon signal addressed to the specific device to be discovered carries information to uniquely address the specific device to be discovered, the information being other than an IP address or a MAC address.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the discoverer transmits the at least one beacon signal via broadcast.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the device to be discovered is a programmable pluggable module with a field programmable gate array (FPGA).

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the device to be discovered continuously monitors for beacon signals transmitted by the discoverer.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transmission of the advertisement is done at regular intervals by the device to be discovered, after is has been discovered, using a valid IP address.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the transmission of the advertisement takes place at regular intervals at a rate specified by the beacon message.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the transmission of the advertisement takes place at regular intervals at a rate specified by pre-configured settings or programmed into firmware or processor of the device to be discovered.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the server specified by the discoverer is the discoverer.

14. A system for of discovering a device to be discovered in a communication network having multiple interconnected nodes, comprising:

a discoverer coupled to a first processor, wherein said discoverer transmits at least one beacon message including an IP address to the device to be discovered over the communication network, wherein the at least one beacon message is a dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) offer message modified so as to be rejected by any device that supports a traditional 4-way DHCP message handshake; and

a device to be discovered coupled to a second processor, wherein the device to be discovered is an undetected device on the network and receives the at least one beacon message transmitted by the discoverer and configures the IP address of the device to discover from the at least one beacon signal;

wherein the device to be discovered is configured by the at least one beacon message to forward the beacon to one or more undetected devices downstream; and

wherein the device to be discovered transmits an advertisement to a server specified by the discoverer in the at least one beacon signal.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the discoverer is one of

(1) a testing unit,

(2) a router, or

(3) a remote node that is local or remote to a subnet.

16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the device to be discovered is a programmable pluggable module inserted in a hosting device.

17. A method of discovering an undetected device to be discovered in a communication network having multiple interconnected nodes, comprising:

transmitting, by a discoverer to the device to be discovered, at least one beacon signal including an IP address to the network,

wherein the at least one beacon signal is a modified dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) offer message;

receiving, by the device to be discovered, the at least one beacon signal;

configuring the device to be discovered with the IP addressing information located in the at least one beacon signal; and

configuring the device to be discovered with forwarding instructions located in the at least one beacon signal, to forward the beacon signal to one or more undetected devices downstream; and

transmitting, by the device to be discovered, an advertisement to a server specified by the discoverer.

18. A method of discovering an undetected device to be discovered in a communication network having multiple interconnected nodes, comprising:

transmitting, by a discoverer to the device to be discovered, at least one beacon signal including an IP address to the network, wherein the discoverer transmits the at least one beacon signal across one or more IP subnets via a list of dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) relay functions available in the network;

receiving, by the device to be discovered, the at least one beacon signal;

configuring the device to be discovered with the IP addressing information located in the at least one beacon signal; and

configuring the device to be discovered with forwarding instructions located in the at least one beacon signal, to forward the beacon signal to one or more undetected devices downstream; and

transmitting, by the device to be discovered, an advertisement to a server specified by the discoverer.

19. A method of discovering an undetected device to be discovered in a communication network having multiple interconnected nodes, comprising:

transmitting, by a discoverer to the device to be discovered, at least one beacon signal including an IP address to the network,

wherein the at least one beacon message is partially encrypted using a crypto key included in a payload of the at least one beacon signal, said encryption used to protect said at least one beacon signal;

receiving, by the device to be discovered, the at least one beacon signal;

configuring the device to be discovered with the IP addressing information located in the at least one beacon signal; and

configuring the device to be discovered with forwarding instructions located in the at least one beacon signal, to forward the beacon signal to one or more undetected devices downstream; and

transmitting, by the device to be discovered, an advertisement to a server specified by the discoverer.

20. A method of discovering an undetected device to be discovered in a communication network having multiple interconnected nodes, comprising:

transmitting, by a discoverer to the device to be discovered, at least one beacon signal including an IP address to the network, wherein a payload of the at least one beacon signal is encoded using a Type-Length-Value (TLV) encoding or position-based encoding;

receiving, by the device to be discovered, the at least one beacon signal;

configuring the device to be discovered with the IP addressing information located in the at least one beacon signal; and

configuring the device to be discovered with forwarding instructions located in the at least one beacon signal, to forward the beacon signal to one or more undetected devices downstream; and

transmitting, by the device to be discovered, an advertisement to a server specified by the discoverer.