Energy-efficient middleware-layer multi-radio networking: An assessment in the area of service discovery

Abstract

The massive deployment of mobile networks together with the emergence of powerful portable devices has given rise to pervasive computing environments. In such environments, mobile users may discover and access services offered in surrounding networks using Service Discovery Protocols (SDPs). However, several SDPs are currently in use, each one designed for a specific target network architecture and setting. As a result, in today's multi-radio networking environment, SDPs do not equally suit each radio interface. In order to provide effective service discovery in multi-radio networks, the most resource-efficient radio interface should be chosen with respect to two main criteria: the adequacy of the interface against the SDP to be used, and energy saving, which is crucial for battery-powered devices. Toward this goal, this article assesses how to effectively take advantage of the multiple radio interfaces now embedded within wireless devices with respect to energy consumption, from the standpoint of service discovery and access. It further investigates the adequacy of legacy SDPs with the various networks, so as to classify the most appropriate networks for each SDP. Exploitation of these results is finally investigated with the description of an energy-efficient algorithm for SDP-based context sensing in a multi-radio pervasive environment.

ubiSOAP: A Service Oriented Middleware for Seamless Networking

“…Exploiting multi-radio connectivity has led to the definition of various algorithms for optimizing the scheduling of communications over multiple radio interfaces, e.g., [12,23,18,20,4]. Building on this effort, this paper has introduced ubiSOAP, which implements SOAP transports that leverage multi-radio, multi-network connectivity and may be coupled with lightweight engines like iCSOAP [10].…”

“…However, different network parameters must be taken into account in the scheduling of communications, so as to meet applications' QoS requirements, while optimizing the overall resource usage [18]. In particular, saving energy is critical for enhanced autonomy of hosts and thus requires selecting as far as possible the network interface that consumes the least energy among those eligible [20,4]. Further, vertical handover across heterogeneous wireless networks must be supported so as to maintain connectivity with nodes despite their mobility across networks [23], and thus bring seamless connectivity to/from mobile nodes.…”

“…The higher bandwidth of WiFi makes it obviously better positioned for handling communication compared to Bluetooth, even for small size messages. However, this takes into account performance only, while other criteria are of relevance like power consumption [4], as addressed by the QoS-aware network selection realized by the ubiSOAP multi-radio networking layer. Although the theoretical bandwidth for Bluetooth and WiFi is significantly different, the actual bandwidth available to applications depends on the hardware, drivers, and, in our case, the Java JVM ability to cope with the load.…”

“…Specifically, as nodes get connected via multiple radio links, thorough scheduling and handover across those links allow enhancing overall connectivity and actually making it seamless [23,18,20]. This calls for making services network-agnostic [21], so that the underlying middleware takes care of scheduling exchanged messages over the embedded links in a way that best matches Quality of Service (QoS) requirements [4], and further ensures service continuity through vertical handover [9]. In this setting, a primary requirement for supporting service-oriented middleware is to provide a comprehensive networking abstraction that allows applications to be unaware of the actual underlying networks while still exploiting their diversities in terms of both functional and extra-functional properties.…”

ubiSOAP: A Service-Oriented Middleware for Ubiquitous Networking

“…Specifically, as nodes get directly connected via multiple radio links, thorough scheduling and handover across those links allow enhancing overall connectivity and actually making it ubiquitous [5], [6]. This calls for making services network-agnostic [7], so that the underlying middleware takes care of scheduling exchanged messages over the embedded links in a way that best matches Quality of Service (QoS) requirements [8], and further ensures service continuity through vertical handover [9]. In this setting, a primary requirement for supporting service-oriented middleware is to provide a comprehensive networking abstraction that allows applications to be unaware of the actual underlying networks while exploiting their diversities in terms of both functional and extra-functional properties.…”