[discovery] Network Service Discovery and Web & TV feedback: follow up & additional questions

[cross-posted intentionally]

Giuseppe, all

In April I sent a request to the Web & TV Interest group for feedback related to Network Service Discovery [1]. I believe the essence of the request was captured in your minutes of 16 April [2] and the follow up from Daniel Davis [3], (slightly paraphrased):

* Does NSD meet the original requirements? http://www.w3.org/TR/hnreq/

* How much interest and support is there for Network Service Discovery?

* Are device manufacturers willing to support CORS in order to enable NSD support?

* Are stakeholders willing to work with user agent vendors for implementation?

* What changes are needed if any?

Matt shared a response [4] that the BBC is "working to ensure CORS support is implemented by HbbTV 2.0 devices for protocols that may be communicated with by companion devices across the home network�.  What is the degree of support for this effort, and what time frame is expected?

Peter Lanigan  of the Smart TV Alliance indicated plans [5] to reference the Network Service Discovery specification. He noted that having both CORS and white-listing addresses security requirements, that it is necessary to have something like this for application developers and that there are proof of concept implementations. I should point out that the editors draft is currently a work in progress, so care should be taken referencing it until the draft advances. 

I also observed in the minutes the view that browser implementer support may be required (though I note extensions might also be an interim possibility)

At this point there is one additional important question to ask:

Have you considered alternatives to Network Service Discovery and how much interest are they receiving? In particular, the Named WebSockets proposal [6] offers an alternative that seems to separate concerns cleanly - using ZeroConf to enable name discovery and then WebSockets to communicate once names are established,  resulting in a relatively simple specification (Rich can add more if better explanation is needed). Use of names might also help with the issue we�ve noted in DAP related to privacy and exposing local network identifiers.

There has also been a thread on the Mozilla browser development list suggesting that building network discovery using a UDP socket approach might be preferable to the NSD specification [7], 

If anyone has more to add  regarding the status of Network Service Discovery with respect to the  Web & TV work, or regarding security, adoption and alternatives, please share on the lists.

Thanks

regards, Frederick

Frederick Hirsch, Nokia
Chair DAP
@fjhirsch

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-web-and-tv/2014Apr/0025.html

[2] http://www.w3.org/2014/04/16-webtv-minutes.html#item02

[3] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-web-and-tv/2014Apr/0032.html

[4] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-web-and-tv/2014Apr/0033.html

[5] shared by Giuseppe,  http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-web-and-tv/2014May/0009.html

[6] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-device-apis/2014May/0032.html

[7] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=914579

Received on Wednesday, 4 June 2014 15:05:28 UTC