1. An article of manufacture comprising: a non-transitory computer-readable medium; and instructions within the computer-readable medium that, when executed, cause a node: to transmit, in a first multicast message, a first resource command message to a plurality of resource nodes over a communication path; to receive responses to the first resource command message from the plurality of resource nodes; to select a preferred provider from the plurality of resource nodes based at least in part on the responses received from the plurality of resource nodes; and to transmit, in a second multicast message, a second resource command message to the plurality of resource nodes, the second resource command message including a command and an indication of the preferred provider selected from the plurality of resource nodes, said second resource command message to instruct the preferred provider to process the command with a first urgency and to instruct another resource node of the plurality of resource nodes to process the command with a second urgency that is less than the first urgency.