---
title: Bridge discovery
---

# Bridge discovery

Hue bridge discovery is done on the local network through [SSDP][].

In summary, you send out an UDP packet to a multicast address (239.255.255.250:1900 for IPv4). The Hue bridge
will respond with information on it’s whereabouts.

<%= toc %>

## UDP broadcast

<% code_block do %>
M-SEARCH * HTTP/1.1
HOST: 239.255.255.250:1900
MAN: ssdp:discover
MX: 10
ST: ssdp:all
<% end %>

### Response

<% code_block do %>
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
CACHE-CONTROL: max-age=100
EXT:
LOCATION: http://192.168.0.21:80/description.xml
SERVER: FreeRTOS/6.0.5, UPnP/1.0, IpBridge/0.1
ST: upnp:rootdevice
USN: uuid:2fa00080-d000-11e1-9b23-001f80007bbe::upnp:rootdevice
<% end %>

There may be other services on your network that respond to your search query.
You’ll need to issue a GET request to `/description.xml`, and match against `modelName`
to find out if it’s a Hue bridge or not.

## Retrieving bridge description.xml

<%= http 'GET /description.xml' %>

### Response

<% xml do %>
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root xmlns="urn:schemas-upnp-org:device-1-0">
  <specVersion>
    <major>1</major>
    <minor>0</minor>
  </specVersion>
  <URLBase>http://192.168.0.21:80/</URLBase>
  <device>
    <deviceType>urn:schemas-upnp-org:device:Basic:1</deviceType>
    <friendlyName>Philips hue (192.168.0.21)</friendlyName>
    <manufacturer>Royal Philips Electronics</manufacturer>
    <manufacturerURL>http://www.philips.com</manufacturerURL>
    <modelDescription>Philips hue Personal Wireless Lighting</modelDescription>
    <modelName>Philips hue bridge 2012</modelName>
    <modelNumber>1000000000000</modelNumber>
    <modelURL>http://www.meethue.com</modelURL>
    <serialNumber>93eadbeef13</serialNumber>
    <UDN>uuid:01234567-89ab-cdef-0123-456789abcdef</UDN>
    <serviceList>
      <service>
        <serviceType>(null)</serviceType>
        <serviceId>(null)</serviceId>
        <controlURL>(null)</controlURL>
        <eventSubURL>(null)</eventSubURL>
        <SCPDURL>(null)</SCPDURL>
      </service>
    </serviceList>
    <presentationURL>index.html</presentationURL>
    <iconList>
      <icon>
        <mimetype>image/png</mimetype>
        <height>48</height>
        <width>48</width>
        <depth>24</depth>
        <url>hue_logo_0.png</url>
      </icon>
      <icon>
        <mimetype>image/png</mimetype>
        <height>120</height>
        <width>120</width>
        <depth>24</depth>
        <url>hue_logo_3.png</url>
      </icon>
    </iconList>
  </device>
</root>
<% end %>

[SSDP]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Service_Discovery_Protocol