On resource discovery in distributed systems with mobile hosts
Daniel O. Awduche, Arthur S. Gaylord, A. Ganz · 1996
Future distributed systems are expected to support mo-bile computing through wireless extensions. In such environments, the spatial location of system resources, such as servers, can change dynamically as a result of host mobility. Consequently, a search or discovery cost is incurred when-ever a client requests use of a mobile resource whose location is unknown. In addition, because of the acute dependence of radio link performance on the characteristics of indoor operating environments, the Quality of Service experienced by a client that utilizes a mobile resource can depend on the resource’s specific location. The work reported in this paper proposes and evaluates a statistical framework for resource discovery in distributed computing environments with mo-bile hosts. Specifically, taking the peculiar attributes of wireless segments of the distributed system into account, we investigate the interplay between the cost of search for po-tentially mobile resources and the utility or benefit accrued to clients that require such resources. This interplay has im-portant ramifications for resource allocation in distributed mobile computing environments.