Also note that the responder 14 as described above may perform any of the processing herein by implementing any functional means or units. In one embodiment, for example, responder 14 comprises respective circuits or circuitry configured to perform the steps shown in FIG. 5. The circuits or circuitry in this regard may comprise circuits dedicated to performing certain functional processing and/or one or more microprocessors in conjunction with memory. In embodiments that employ memory, which may comprise one or several types of memory such as read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory, cache memory, flash memory devices, optical storage devices, etc., the memory stores program code that, when executed by the one or more processors, carries out the techniques described herein.

FIG. 8A illustrates responder 14 in accordance with one or more embodiments. As shown, the responder 14 includes processing circuitry 610 and communication circuitry 620. The communication circuitry 620 is configured to transmit and/or receive information to and/or from one or more other nodes, e.g., via any communication technology. The processing circuitry 610 is configured to perform processing described above, e.g., in FIG. 5, such as by executing instructions stored in memory 630. The processing circuitry 610 in this regard may implement certain functional means, units, or modules.