SLP

Service Location Protocol is a method of organizing and locating the resources (such as printers, disk drives, databases, e-mail directories, and schedulers) in a network.

Using SLP, networking applications can discover the existence, location and configuration of networked devices. 
With Service Location Protocol, client applications are 'User Agents' and services are advertised by 'Service Agents'. The User Agent issues a multicast 'Service Request' (SrvRqst) on behalf of the client application, specifying the services required. The User Agent will receive a Service Reply (SrvRply) specifying the location of all services in the network which satisfy the request. 
For larger networks, a third entity, called a 'Directory Agent', receives registrations from all available Service Agents. A User Agent sends a unicast request for services to a Directory Agent (if there is one) rather than to a Service Agent.
 (SLP version 2, RFC2608, updating RFC2165)