How can I use Jini on my network if my routers don't support multicast?

Created May 4, 2012

Tim Rohaly

Multicast is used in two places in Jini: during lookup discovery and lookup announcement.

Lookup discovery, the protocol for finding available lookup services, can also be accomplished using unicast UDP packets. This unicast discovery protocol loses some of the benefits of using multicast, because lookup service clients must know a priori where the lookup servers are located. This is usually used for more static installations, or to bridge network segments where multicast can't go.

Lookup announcement, the protocol lookup services use to announce their presence when they start up or reconnect to a network, doesn't have a unicast analog. However, announcement is not needed when the lookup service clients require a particular lookup services, as in the case where they are using unicast discovery.