Service-Oriented Computing Imperatives in Ad Hoc Wireless Settings

Abstract

Service-oriented computing is the latest step in a progression of programming paradigms containing, among others, the object-oriented computing and component-oriented computing paradigms. The service-oriented computing paradigm is characterized by a minimalist philosophy, in that a user needs to carry only a small amount of code in its local storage, and exploits other services by discovering and using their capabilities to complete its assigned task. While the paradigm was born and reached a certain level of maturity in wired networks, we examine the imperatives for service-oriented computing in ad hoc wireless networks. An ad hoc wireless network is a dynamic environment by necessity, which exhibits transient interactions, decoupled computing, physical mobility of hosts, and logical mobility of code. The motivation for this chapter is to understand the imperatives for a viable service-oriented computing framework in ad hoc wireless settings.