Service location in an open distributed environment

The paper describes a service location function that maps a service name obtained from a trader onto service access information which can be used to invoke the traded service. The emphasis of the work is on the solutions of problems presented by an open distributed environment. Specifically, our service location function addresses the handling of: i. Heterogeneous naming systems that exist in open systems; ii. The dynamic evolution of naming systems that can occur in open systems; iii. Heterogeneous access systems that exist in open systems. The paper also describes some details of an early prototype for such a service location function.<>