The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 05, 2003
Filed:
Sep. 23, 1999
James Edward Beck, Tarrytown, NY (US);
Alain Franck Gefflaut, Elmsford, NY (US);
Nayeem Islam, Bellevue, WA (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method, apparatus and computer product that enables one or more computing devices to discover and use services over a network, which may be ad-hoc when the computing device is mobile. Service discovery is based on periodic multicasting of exported service descriptions to nearby devices over the (ad-hoc) network. Middleware enables a device to discover, advertise and use services. This enables software clients on the same device to share a service implementation (in the case of a local service) or to share an implementation proxy (in the case of a remote service). Each device being aware of the services (and service locations) that are currently available generally reduces the response time associated with accessing available services. While service descriptors are multicast and discovered, the service software is only downloaded on the device when the service is used. This enables economical resource management that is particularly useful for mobile devices.