Automatic discovery of thin servers: SLP, Jini and the SLP-Jini Bridge

Thin servers are an emerging class of device that offer services over IP networks without requiring network expertise or infrastructure to deploy. Such services can be built into consumer devices such as entertainment, home appliance, vehicle or telecommunications equipment. Thin servers must be as lightweight as possible to keep the added cost of networking features from adversely raising the price of the base appliance. The Jini operating environment offers decentralized and dynamic access to networked services by Java-based clients. Jini clients discover Jini-enabled services automatically. Some thin servers have insufficient resources to run a Java Virtual Machine (JVM). These devices benefit from the Service Location Protocol (SLP), a lightweight service discovery standard that is part of the TCP/IP suite of protocols. This IETF standard allows services to advertise themselves to clients. When combined with an SLP-Jini Bridge, services employing SLP can also be discovered by Jini clients transparently.