Skip to content

Advertisement

EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking

EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking Cover Image
  • Research Article
  • Open Access

Beacon-Based Service Publishing Framework in Multiservice Wi-Fi Hotspots

EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking20072007:038463

https://doi.org/10.1155/2007/38463

©  Dario Di Sorte et al. 2007

Received: 7 November 2006

Accepted: 8 March 2007

Published: 24 May 2007

Abstract

In an expected future multiaccess and multiservice IEEE 802.11 environment, the problem of providing users with useful service-related information to support a correct rapid network selection is expected to become a very important issue. A feasible short-term 802.11-tailored working solution, compliant with existing equipment, is to publish service information encoded within the SSID information element within beacon frames. This makes it possible for an operator to implement service publishing in 802.11 networks while waiting for a standardized mechanism. Also, this straightforward approach has allowed us to evaluate experimentally the performance of a beacon-based service publishing solution. In fact, the main focus of the paper is indeed to present a quantitative comparison of service discovery times between the legacy scenario, where the user is forced to associate and authenticate with a network point of access to check its service offer, and the enhanced scenario where the set of service-related information is broadcasted within beacons. These discovery times are obtained by processing the results of a measurement campaign performed in a multiaccess/service 802.11 environment. This analysis confirms the effectiveness of the beacon-based approach. We also show that the cost in terms of wireless bandwidth consumption of such solution is low.

Keywords

Service DiscoveryDiscovery TimeMeasurement CampaignWorking SolutionStraightforward Approach

[123456789101112131415161718192021222324]

Authors’ Affiliations

(1)
Department of Electronic and Information Engineering (D.I.E.I.), University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

References

  1. Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications IEEE Standard 802.11 199Google Scholar
  2. Draft IEEE Standard for Local and Metropolitan Area Networks: Media Independent Handover Services 2006.Google Scholar
  3. Lee Y-W, Miller SC: Network selection and discovery of service information in public WLAN hotspots. Proceedings of the 2nd ACM International Workshop on Wireless Mobile Applications and Services on WLAN Hotspots (WMASH '04), October 2004, Philadelphia, Pa, USA 81-92.View ArticleGoogle Scholar
  4. IEEE P802.11, TASK GROUP U http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/11/Reports/tgu_update.htm
  5. Moreton M: Suggested TGu Functional Requirements. IEEE Contribution, doc.: IEEE 802.11-05/0279r15, June 2005.Google Scholar
  6. Moreton M: Requirement Motions. IEEE Contribution, doc.: IEEE 802.11-05/0643r2, July 2005.Google Scholar
  7. McDonald A, Hepworth E: 802.11 TGu Initial Network Selection Concept. IEEE Contribution, doc.: IEEE 802.11-05/0870r0, September 2005.Google Scholar
  8. Aboba B, Beadles M: The Network Access Identifier. IETF RFC 2486, January 1999.View ArticleGoogle Scholar
  9. Mahy R: Network Characteristics for AP Selection. IEEE Contribution, doc.: IEEE 802.11-05/1595r0, January 2005.Google Scholar
  10. O'Hara B, Calhoun P, Kempf J: Configuration and Provisioning for Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP) Problem Statement. IETF RFC 3990, February 2005.View ArticleGoogle Scholar
  11. Yang L, Zerfos P, Sadot E: Architecture Taxonomy for Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP). IETF RFC 4118, June 200View ArticleGoogle Scholar
  12. Liebsch M, Singh A, Chaskar H, Funato D, Shim E: Candidate Access Router Discovery (CARD). IETF RFC 4066, July 2005.View ArticleGoogle Scholar
  13. Ahmed R, Boutaba R, Cuervo F, et al.: Service discovery protocols: a comparative study. Proceedings of the 9th IFIP/IEEE International Symposium on Integrated Network Management (IM '05), May 2005, Nice, France Application SessionGoogle Scholar
  14. Zhu F, Mutka MW, Ni LM: Service discovery in pervasive computing environments. IEEE Pervasive Computing 2005,4(4):81-90. 10.1109/MPRV.2005.87View ArticleGoogle Scholar
  15. Guttman E, Perkins C, Veizades J, Day M: Service Location Protocol. version 2, IETF RFC 2608, 1999.View ArticleGoogle Scholar
  16. Virtual AP Technology Multiplies WLAN Services Whitepaper, Colubris Networks, March 2004, http://www.colubris.com/downloads/whitepapers/wp_vap.pdf
  17. IEEE 802.1Q Standard : Virtual Bridged Local Area Networks. 2003.Google Scholar
  18. The Colubris Web Site : MultiService Controllers. http://www.colubris.com/downloads/datasheets/DS_MSC_3000.pdf
  19. The Squid Web Proxy Cache http://www.squid-cache.org/
  20. IEEE 802.1X Standard : Port-based Network Access Control. 2001.Google Scholar
  21. Anton B, Bullock B, Short J: Best current practices for Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISP) Roaming. v1.0, Wi-Fi Alliance, February 2002.Google Scholar
  22. The OpenSLP Project http://www.openslp.org/
  23. Alexander S, Droms R: DHCP Options and BOOTP Vendor Extensions. IETF RFC 2132, March 1997.View ArticleGoogle Scholar
  24. Iperf network performance tool http://dast.nlanr.net/Projects/IperfGoogle Scholar

Copyright

© Dario Di Sorte et al. 2007

This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Advertisement