Network layer search service using oriented multicasting

Many protocols and applications need a discovery mechanism to enable a given client node to locate one or several specific nodes involved in the same communication. However, there is no protocol ready to fulfill this service at the network layer. Every protocol usually implements its own solution. In particular, multicast protocols often use a search technique called expanding ring search. This method searches for those specific nodes in all directions and thus uses much bandwidth. However, a typical search can usually restrict its scan in a specific direction. To answer this problem, we propose a network layer search service in replacement of the expanding ring search whenever it is appropriate. This service is based on an oriented multicasting protocol in order to ensure an efficiency higher than the expanding ring search. The oriented multicasting principle is to channel the multicasting of search packets towards a special node, involved in the communication, in order to scan only a limited area. We describe both the network layer search service and the oriented multicasting and we provide comparative simulation results between our service and the expanding ring search.