QoS-Aware Resource Discovery in Mobile Environments

In this chapter, we will address the problem of resource discovery that ensures sustained QoS (Quality of Service) for mobile applications. We present two aspects of the resource discovery problem: (i) static resource discovery that determines the best resources to service a request when it is initiated, (ii) dynamic resource reprovisioning that continues to find nearby resources as a mobile client moves arbitrarily. We explain the role of context information in effective resource discovery and discuss what constitutes relevant context information for mobile applications. By introducing a generalized mediation-based architecture, we show how context information is collected and applied to support static and dynamic resource discovery. We illustrate potential solutions to these issues through a case study that uses nearby grid resources to support mobile services.