Device Discovery for the PalCom Pervasive Middleware with Eliminated Cross-networks Periodic Heart-beat Messages

Service discovery is central in pervasive middleware systems, built on top of the communication substrate using the more fundamental mechanisms for device discovery. In mobile pervasive systems devices come and go, and switch network frequently, demanding support for device discovery across heterogeneous networks. We present the design of a device discovery mechanism for the PalCom middleware that eliminates the need for cross-network periodic keep-alive messages while still supporting timely detection of missing devices, i.e. undiscovery. The design has been implemented and is evaluated against the simplistic approach of flooding the inter-connected networks with keep-alive messages.