Support for Fast Service Selection in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks using a Selective Benchmark Strategy

G. Prochart, R. Weiss (Austria), R. Schmid, and G. Kaefer (Germany)

Keywords

MANET, service selection, service ranking, potential value, selective benchmark strategy

Abstract

A Mobile Ad Hoc NETwork (MANET) is formed by the association of mobile devices, usually wireless and capable of multi-hop communication among themselves even if there is no networking infrastructure available. Devices may join and leave the network anytime, and devices may move randomly within the network, which leads to a permanently changing availability of services and resources. Generally, if some MANET nodes are connected to external networks, a couple of them might act as gateways towards those networks. Therefore, the possible service scenery may range from premium services – residing on servers and accessed through the gateways – to simple software components and hardware resources which can be used by other devices. The former may use standard QoS attributes like response time, availability, etc. The latter are commonly residing on moveable devices within the network and need therefore other attributes and mechanisms to rank and select among them. In this paper we present a concept for evaluating potential values for services expressing the current capability for providing their functionality. Therefore, a lightweight middleware component on every device uses a selective benchmark strategy analyzing context, service level and resource-related information. The resulting potential values can be used to make fast decisions for service selection and contingency reaction.

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