Method and apparatus for locating a service

• US 20050055421A1
• Filed: 09/10/2003
• Published: 03/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Pering, Trevor A., Want, Roy, Light, John J., Sundararajan, Muralidharan
• Granted Patent: US 7,483,952 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

An apparatus and a system, as well as a method and article, may operate to receive solicited or unsolicited computing platform service information associated with services offered by a plurality of service points in a range area, store some portion of the received information, and periodically transmit, with or without confirmation, some portion of the stored information to one or more potential subscribers.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving computing platform service information associated with at least one service offered by at least a subset of a plurality of service points;

storing at least a portion of the computing platform service information; and

periodically transmitting, without confirmation, a part of the at least a portion of the computing platform service information to at least one potential subscriber to the at least one service.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the at least one service offered by one of the plurality of service points is no longer available.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining that the at least one service offered by one of the plurality of service points is no longer available further comprises:

determining that the at least one service does not respond to a polling query.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein determining that the at least one service offered by one of the plurality of service points is no longer available further comprises:

determining that the at least one service does not respond within a selected timeout period.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

discovering that a new service offered by one of the plurality of service points is currently available.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

providing a direction to the new service.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

discovering that a new service offered by an additional service point not included in the plurality of service points is currently available

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one service includes a wireless service selected from:

a network connection service, a printer service, a display service, a storage service, an inventory service, a game service, an interactive customer service, a query service, a communication service, and an advertising service.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein periodically transmitting occurs at a single physical location.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of service points are located in a range area.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

monitoring the range area to detect a plurality of broadcasting service points.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

monitoring the range area to detect at least one wireless service broker.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving computing platform service information associated with at least one service offered by at least a subset of a plurality of service points located in another range area from a single wireless service broker.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving computing platform service information associated with at least one service offered by at least a subset of a plurality of service points from at least one wireless service broker.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing platform service information includes an extensible markup language device description.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the part of the at least a portion of the computing platform service information includes sufficient information to access the service directly.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the service is offered by a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) node.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing platform service information comprises unsolicited computing platform service information.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing platform service information comprises at least one attribute associated with the at least one service.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the at least one attribute is selected from at least one of a range, a signal strength, and a location.

21. An article comprising a machine-accessible medium having associated data, wherein the data, when accessed, results in a machine performing:

receiving computing platform service information associated with at least one service offered by at least a subset of a plurality of service points in a range area;

storing at least a portion of the computing platform service information; and

periodically transmitting, without confirmation, a part of the at least a portion of the computing platform service information to at least one potential subscriber to the at least one service.

22. The article of claim 21, wherein periodically transmitting, without confirmation, the part of the at least a portion of the computing platform service information further includes:

transmitting, without confirmation, the part of the at least a portion of the computing platform service information at intervals of less than about every five minutes.

23. The article of claim 21, wherein receiving computing platform service information further comprises:

running a process, in a network, to receive the computing platform service information.

24. The article of claim 21, wherein the data, when accessed, results in the machine performing:

selecting the portion of the computing platform service information according to a policy.

25. The article of claim 24, wherein the policy is associated with at least one of a pecuniary relationship, an ownership relationship, a security relationship, and a device type.

26. The article of claim 21, wherein the computing platform service information comprises unsolicited computing platform service information.

27. The article of claim 21, wherein the computing platform service information comprises at least one attribute associated with the at least one service.

28. The article of claim 27, wherein the at least one attribute is selected from at least one of a range, a signal strength, and a location.

29. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory module to store computing platform service information associated with at least one service offered by at least a subset of a plurality of service points in a range area; and

a transmission module, coupled to the memory module, to periodically transmit without confirmation at least a part of the computing platform service information to at least one potential subscriber to the at least one service.

30. The apparatus of claim 29, further comprising:

a reception module to receive the computing platform service information.

31. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the reception module comprises a software module to execute in a network.

32. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the range area is defined by a network router count.

33. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein the network router count comprises a time-to-live count of about 1 to about 3.

34. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the range area is defined by a reception range of a wireless reception module coupled to the memory module.

35. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the transmission module is to provide a direction to at least one of the plurality of service points if the at least one potential subscriber indicates the at least one of the plurality of service points is not within a useful range of the at least one potential subscriber.

36. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the computing platform service information comprises unsolicited computing platform service information.

37. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the computing platform service information comprises at least one attribute associated with the at least one service.

38. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the at least one attribute is selected from at least one of a range, a signal strength, and a location.

39. A system, comprising:

a memory module to store computing platform service information associated with at least one service offered by at least a subset of a plurality of service points in a range area;

a transmission module, coupled to the memory module, to transmit without confirmation at least a part of the computing platform service information to at least one potential subscriber to the at least one service; and

an omnidirectional antenna coupled to the transmission module.

40. The system of claim 39, further comprising:

a reception module, coupled to the omnidirectional antenna, to receive the computing platform service information.

41. The system of claim 39, wherein the part of the computing platform service information is selected according to a policy.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein the policy specifies a service type.

43. The system of claim 39, further comprising:

a wireless service broker to receive the at least a part of the computing platform service information from the transmission module.

44. The system of claim 39, wherein the computing platform service information comprises unsolicited computing platform service information.

45. The system of claim 39, wherein the computing platform service information comprises at least one attribute associated with the at least one service.

46. The system of claim 45, wherein the at least one attribute is selected from at least one of a range, a signal strength, and a location.