Evaluating UPnP service discovery protocols by using NS2 simulator

Examining a protocol is necessary in order to identify its advantages and disadvantages precisely. Here we apply UPnP technology on an Ethernet network to evaluate its performance and identify its positive and negative sides. As it is known that UPnP can be run on many media that support IP such as Ethernet, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. This paper produces an evaluation of UPnP service discovery protocol on different network sizes and shape by using NS2 simulator. This evaluation includes an assessment to the required transmission time which is required in the sending and receiving of messages for discovering all services in a defined network, and the cost for each examined network size to achieve this process. Cost means the required number of messages that should be transmitted to discover all services in the defined network. In addition to, examine the effect of the network shape to the performance of the UPnP protocol.