An evaluation of centralized and distributed service location protocols for pervasive wireless networks

Ad-hoc networks are infrastructureless networks formed on-the-fly by devices with wireless communication capabilities. They have bandwidth and device power limitations, as well as the need to deal with mobility. If client server interactions are to be present in such networks, a method for performing service location is needed. When two nodes that are several hops apart communicate, resources on all the intermediate nodes are wasted, so it is better to find services that are "closer" to the clients. This paper evaluates distributed and centralized architectures for service location. In particular it examines service availability and message overhead performance using simulations. The findings reveal the best approach that can be used as an underlying structure for higher layer service location protocols.