Subject: Service Discovery In MANETs

From: Sanket Nesargi <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 15:43:28 -0500 (CDT)

Hi,
	Also, on MANETs and IP Layering, in terms of service discovery, we
believe that the model of acquiring service would depend upon whether the
MANET is operating isolated from the rest of the Internet, or connected to
it. In case of the former, there is no central point ( a fixed node) from
where service can be acquired - pointing to distributed models of service
discovery (IP addresses, DNS resolution etc). In such a scenario, to allow
nodes to join an existing n/w and discover existing services, it would
make more sense for them to be allocated addresses out of a particular
chunk. Mobile nodes, in their native mode of operation, could be using
private IP addresses, and hence, there is a potential for IP address
conflict when such nodes join a MANET. Perhaps, this (address
allocation/conflict resolution) could also be a part of the service
discovery phase, where nodes get configured with new addresses. 
	In case the MANET is connected to the Internet too, this approach
allows the advantage of route aggregation, since routes to all nodes
inside the MANET could be advertised via the interface connected to the
Internet. As mentioned in an earlier mail in the thread, allowing nodes to
use their own IP addresses would require the use of Mobile IP by them
(which can be avoided by allowing addresses off a common chunk)

Regards,
- Sanket
 	
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Sanket S. Nesargi
Distributed Systems Lab
University of Texas at Dallas,		http://www.utdallas.edu/~sanket
Richardson TX 75082			<[email-masked]>
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