It sounds like you are trying to accomodate 2 different protocols into a single program.

You can simplify your solution space by declaring one of them to be primary - in this case, it sounds like you want to use N:S:M as primary. This becomes your primary program (Server). Now, if you write a N:S:M client that talks the SPread protocol (which I know nothing about), it looks just like a client to N:S:M, and is dedicated to speaking Spread.