Discovering Multimedia Services and Contents in Mobile Environments

Abstract

Accessing multimedia services from portable devices in nomadic environments is of increasing interest for mobile users. Service discovery mechanisms help mobile users freely and efficiently locating multimedia services they want. The chapter first provides an introduction to the topic service discovery and content location in mobile environments, including background and problems to be solved. Then, the chapter presents typical architectures and technologies of service discovery in infrastructure-based mobile environments, covering both emerging industry standards and advances in the research world. Their advantages and limitations, as well as open issues are discussed, too. Finally, the approaches for content location in mobile ad hoc networks are described in detail. The strengths and limitations of these approaches with regard to mobile multimedia services are analyzed.