software hardware or firmware in software embodiments the sequence may be implemented by instructions executed by a processor such as the processor 36 shown in fig3 for a branch device 34 in such case the sequence may be stored on the storage 42 initially a branch device receives an add_stream message as indicated in block 112 it stores the stream_id and the input port from that message in its mapping table as indicated in block 114 then the branch device maps the input stream_id to an output stream_id as indicated at block 116 it stores the output stream_id and output port number in its mapping table as indicated in block 118 then it forwards the message onwards as indicated in block 120 ultimately if the message is successfully delivered an acknowledgment message will be received from a downstream device and the branch device forwards the acknowledgement message upstream as indicated in block 122 in some embodiments a message passing framework 124 shown in fig1 may allow for action by all devices along a path or action only by the destination device messages have identifiers with a new identifier being allocated as each new message is defined the definition of a message includes determination of whether it is a path or a destination message path messages.