PDP and GSDL: A New Service Discovery Middleware to Support Spontaneous Interactions in Pervasive Systems

Abstract

In pervasive computing environments, mobile devices communicate via wireless links without requiring any fixed infrastructure. These devices must be able to discover and share services dynamically. In this paper, we propose a new service discovery middleware specifically designed for this kind of environments. This middleware is composed of a service discovery protocol, Pervasive Discovery Protocol (PDP), and a service description language, Generic Service Description Language (GSDL). PDP is a fully distributed protocol that merges characteristics of both pull and push solutions; it reduces power consumption of the most limited devices. GSDL is an XML based markup language that uses a hierarchical service description designed taking into account the specific requirements of pervasive environments.