[zeromq-dev] How do we activate and connect to WiFi hotspots in edgenets?

[Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis]

Having no experience on the matter, why not use bluetooth as an interface
that searches for peers and wifi for real network traffic.
Wifi will be switched on only when there is need for data to be sent.
That could also help the wifi automatically switch to the best access point.

Bluetooth has a range of 50m. That is good enough for peer discovery and
peer coordination.
>From the wikipedia, both of them are available on smartphones.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth_low_energy



2014/1/9 Pieter Hintjens <ph at imatix.com>

> Ad-hoc mode is too poorly supported to depend on. And it's slow.
>
> In any case a phone cannot act as a hotspot for any length of time. On
> some firmwares enabling AP mode will switch off 3G. This is still fine
> for us. My idea was to put this decision at the user level, initially.
> The application chooses to "host" or to "join" some activity. It's a
> natural pattern in a group of people. The host of a meeting is less
> likely to walk out the door, and more likely to have power.
>
> On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 3:14 PM, Lindley French <lindleyf at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>There really is no cost to using a smartphone as hotspot except a
> >>little delay and some battery life, while switched on.
> >
> > Battery life may be more of an issue than you realize. Wifi radios use
> far
> > less power than 3G radios, but they still *do* use power, and the
> pattern of
> > network activity can have a strong effect on battery life. The most
> > important thing to realize is that people "expect" their smartphones not
> to
> > use much power while they're idle. If you're doing network activity all
> the
> > time in the background, that isn't the case, and people will become
> unhappy
> > with your software and uninstall it. (Note the reactions to the first
> > release of Google Now, which committed a similar sin with location
> services.
> > GPS receivers use a lot of power too.)
> >
> > To some extent you can be smart enough to reduce network activity
> > significantly while the phone is idle compared to active. Beacon less
> often,
> > include a parameter in the beacon letting other phones know you'll only
> be
> > "listening" for a short window after a beacon, etc. It's possible to give
> > the radio a break.
> >
> > My concern is that once a phone is trying to host an access point, it
> gets a
> > lot harder to be selective about when the wifi radio is active. It has
> to be
> > on pretty much all the time. The exception might be ad-hoc mode-----once
> one
> > node creates an ad-hoc network (which is surprisingly tricky on Android),
> > others can sustain the SSID without it. However, if the anchoring node
> was
> > providing DHCP services, then obviously that won't work anymore once it
> goes
> > offline.
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 3:06 AM, Pieter Hintjens <ph at imatix.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 8:24 AM, crocket <crockabiscuit at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> > Nowadays, almost every city is covered with WiFi hotspots.
> >> >
> >> > And, almost every modern building and meetup is covered well by WiFi
> >> > hotspots.
> >> >
> >> > Most houses have a hotspot or two.
> >> >
> >> > Why don't we take advantage of existing WiFi hotspots? It would make
> >> > things
> >> > so much easier while we devise a way to connect phones directly or
> wait
> >> > for
> >> > 802.11s.
> >>
> >> You can, of course. There are some aspects to take into account:
> >>
> >> * It works perfectly e.g. in the home or office where people naturally
> >> put devices on their access point.
> >> * Many public hotspots, especially in the US, block client-to-client
> >> traffic.
> >> * Public hotspots are trivial to tap, if you care about anonymity.
> >> * There really is no cost to using a smartphone as hotspot except a
> >> little delay and some battery life, while switched on.
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >
> >
> >
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> >
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-- 


Sincerely yours,

     Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis
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