Web Services Dynamic Discovery
lastmod 2026-02-03created 2021-04-0817 edits
WS- Discovery ( Web Services Dynamic Discovery ) is a technical specification that defines a multicast discovery protocol for locating services on a local network. It operates over TCP and UDP port 3702 and uses the IP multicast address 239.255.255.250 or FF02::C. As the name suggests, the actual communication between nodes is done using web services standards, notably SOAP-over-UDP .
WS-Discovery terms
- Action
- In WS-Addressing, an Action (URI) identifies the semantics of a message.
- QName
- Names used in XML are uniquely qualified when associated with the namespace (URI) they belong to.
- Scope
- A scope is a common identifier used to organize web services into logical groups, serving a purpose similar to a category or tag.
- EPR
- An EndPoint Reference is a URI that identifies a SOAP resource such as a WS-Discovery service. EPRs are included in probe match messages. The resolve message can then be used to retrieve the actual network address for the service.
- An endpoint reference (EPR) is a combination of Web services (WS) elements that define the address for a resource in a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) header. In this context, an endpoint is any user device connected to a network. Endpoints can include personal computers (PCs), personal digital assistants (PDAs) and specialized equipment such as inventory scanners and point-of-sale terminals. 1
- Envelope
- SOAP messages are wrapped in so-called envelopes.
Projects
- WSDiscovery
- WS-Discovery implementation for python
- https://pypi.org/project/WSDiscovery/
- https://github.com/andreikop/python-ws-discovery
- camera-probe
- A realtime camera network device discovery tool.
- https://github.com/snow-tree/camera-probe
See also
- PSIA
- onvif
- zeep
- Web Services Description Language (WSDL)
- Web Services Dynamic Discovery (WS-Discovery)
- SOAP
- arp-scan - Devices can also be found this way.
- ONVIF:Example:FindDevice - How to find and communicate with cameras on the network using ONVIF
- Avahi
- Bonjour
- DHCP
- Jini
- List of Web service specifications
- LLMNR
- OSGi Alliance
- SSDP
- Universal Plug and Play (UPnP)
- Web Services Discovery
- Web Services for Devices
- Zero-configuration networking (Zeroconf)
Favorite site
- Wikipedia (en) WS-Discovery
- OASIS Web Services Dynamic Discovery (WS-Discovery) - OASIS WS-Discovery spec.
- Stackoverflow - WS-Discovery for cameras on different logical network
References
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An EPR (Endpoint Reference) is a combination of WS (web services) elements that define the address of a resource in a SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) header. In this context, an endpoint is any user device connected to a network. Endpoints can include PCs (personal computers), PDAs (personal digital assistants), and specialized equipment such as inventory scanners and POS terminals. ↩