Service Naming in Future Mobile Environments

Future mobile environments will consist of various network systems that compete to offer services to mobile users. The challenge for the mobile user is to discover the available services and to select the desired services since similar services can have different names and services with same name can be totally or partially different. Furthermore, the service discovery must be accomplished in minimum time to ensure service continuity. A sound service naming scheme is a necessity in future mobile environments. The goal of this paper is to shed light on the service naming area and to propose a service naming scheme which is suitable for a future mobile environment where a mobile device can have connection to several heterogeneous network systems. The paper highlights the definitions used in service naming scheme. Some existing service naming schemes and related works are studied and reviewed. The notion of service is also clarified, which is defined as a work done by the system servers that benefits the end-user. The high-level requirements of the service naming is then identified and based on that eventually a service naming scheme for future mobile services is proposed.