AC-CDS: autonomous collaborative collection, discovery, and sharing of information for mobile users and devices

Mobile users and devices want to discover and share a growing range of information as the processing and storage capacities of mobile devices grow rapidly. For example, users may want to discover the locations of nearby networks and location-based dynamic information contents. A mobile device may want to know the existence and capabilities of neighboring networks and the parameters it needs use to access these networks. This allows the device to intelligently decide which network to use next, and to use its existing network connection to authenticate with a selected neighboring network before it enters the selected network's coverage area (hence significantly reducing handoff delays). Existing service discovery frameworks are not effective in discovering neighboring networks and location-based dynamic user information contents. This paper proposes and evaluates a new approach for real time collection, discovery, and sharing of network and user information, which we refer to as autonomous collaborative information collection, discovery, and sharing (AC-CDS). It is autonomous because regular mobile users and devices act autonomously to collect information and make the information available to others. It is collaborative as the autonomous actions of the mobile users and devices help each other to discover the information they want.