The invention makes possible remote control of devices in a piconet by
remote users communicating over the Internet and the like by providing a
proxy-bridge device. The proxy-bridge device is a bridge for sending
packets to and from between an external device and a device in the
piconet. Moreover, the proxy-bridge device also serves as a proxy for the
external device to devices in the piconet and as a proxy for devices in
the piconet accessing an external device. The proxy-bridge wireless
device's protocol stack allows communications with the piconet devices
within the piconet. In addition, the protocol stack allows an application
to communicate with a remote device e.g., via the Internet Protocol.
Thus, the proxy-bridge device, using two protocols, enables remote users
discover the presence of a service offered by a device in a piconet as a
logical embedded device within the proxy-bridge device and vice-versa.