US Patent 7339484 Event-driven discovery method and apparatus

Provided is a method and apparatus for performing discovery between devices in a network. Using event-driven discovery, devices conserve energy resources and more rapidly join a given network. The event-driven discovery detects a common-event associated with a first device preparing to communicate with a second device. The first device then discovers the second device in response to detection of the common-event. For example, this common-event could be a handshake with another person. During discovery, the first and second devices exchange respective information and optionally may establish a communication session to exchange further information if desired.