Profile-Based Ad Hoc Social Networking Using Wi-Fi Direct on the Top of Android
This addresses the need for infrastructure-less, interest-based social networking for mobile users, though it is incremental as it builds on existing ad-hoc networking concepts.
The paper tackled the problem of enabling ad-hoc social networking on commercial mobile devices without requiring centralized servers or phone rooting, by implementing a system that broadcasts user profiles via Wi-Fi Direct to match interests within a 200-meter range, resulting in peer-to-peer group formation for private communication.
Ad-hoc Social Networks have become popular to support novel applications related to location-based mobile services that are of great importance to users and businesses. Unlike traditional social services using a centralized server to fetch location, ad-hoc social network services support infrastructure less real-time social networking. It allows users to collaborate and share views anytime anywhere. However, current ad-hoc social network applications are either not available without rooting the mobile phones or don't filter the nearby users based on common interests without a centralized server. This paper presents an architecture and implementation of social networks on commercially available mobile devices that allow broadcasting name and a limited number of keywords representing users' interests without any connection in a nearby region to facilitate matching of interests. The broadcasting region creates a digital aura and is limited by WiFi region that is around 200 meters. The application connects users to form a group based on their profile or interests using peer-to-peer communication mode without using any centralized networking or profile matching infrastructure. The peer-to-peer group can be used for private communication when the network is not available.