A cloud-based DNS-SD architecture may link together separate LANs to form a virtual discovery zone from a service discovery perspective that includes a cloud based DNS-SD server separate from regular Internet DNS, and asleep node handling, among other things. In an example, a cloud based DNS-SD server is separate from the regular Internet DNS servers. This cloud DNS-SD server may run as a private Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) specifically for service discovery in the virtual discovery zone.