Developing a peer-to-peer network of wireless devices, and demonstrating with a real-time system to allow collaboration and communication.

Current networking approaches for mobile devices often follow a client-server approach - the traditional and most common way of networking computers. This approach was first designed many years ago, and reflected the use of networking at the time. It was the age of the mainframe, when the high cost of memory and processors meant that computing resources were stored in a single super-computer.

However, times have changed. The mainframe is no longer the main information store - we are. Each of us carries a wealth of electronic information - from calendars, and contact details to business files, carried on a variety of mobile devices. Sharing this information with colleagues and friends is vital if we are to be productive and make best use of this mobile information. As a result, the client-server approach breaks down.

The solution is mobile peer-to-peer networking: a technique that allows mobile device users to exchange information, communicate and collaborate on their work; a technique that better reflects our new use of technology.

This project was an attempt to demonstrate this argument by building a peer-to-peer network of wireless devices, and a suite of applications that shows this exchanging of information between peers.

The project was developed in PersonalJava (a predecessor to J2ME) for portability across platforms, and tested on wireless Compaq iPaqs using Bluetooth.

Design and development work was carried out in three conceptual layers - "core" for networking protocols, "services" containing common peer-to-peer functionality, and "application" with three small programs (collaborative whiteboard, chat program and file transfer).

The core layer development was based on Sun's JXTA protocols - an open source set of peer-to-peer protocols.