QoS-aware service location in mobile ad hoc networks

The advent of light-weight terminals (e.g., PDA) with integrated communication capabilities facilitates service access and hosting anytime, anywhere. However, effective service access requires dealing with the service´s QoS, including related resource consumption. This paper introduces a comprehensive framework for QoS-aware service location in ad hoc networks. Our framework divides into: (i) QoS specification that is expressive enough to capture most significant QoS-related properties, and concise enough to have minimal computation cost associated with QoS management; and (ii) a benefit function for evaluating the overall benefit of service instances available in the network from the standpoint of QoS regarding both the user´s perspective and resource consumption on hosts. Application of the proposed QoS framework is addressed in the context of the mobile ADHoc WS system, which supports QoS-aware location of Web services deployed in mobile ad hoc networks.