Discovery of autonomous semantic services in mobile ad hoc networks

Abstract

Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) are dynamic networks in which mobile devices with wireless connnunication capabilities cooperate to provide spontaneous connectivity. In particular, a mobile ad hoc network can be considered an open distributed system, where autonomous mobile nodes with limited capabilities can join and leave the network at any time. The resulting topologies are decentralised and differ from those of stationary networks in their high degree of randomness. Although a challenging environment, MANETs find wide applicability in scenarios where spontaueous networking is required, e.g., pervasive computing. This thesis assumes that such scenarios will make use of collaborative applications with functionality that is distributed across nodes.