[LINK] Wi-Fi peer-to-peer

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

The (non-profit) Wi-Fi Alliance has started work to make it easier
to write applications that use Wi-Fi direct peer-to-peer standards

By Stephen Lawson (IDG News Service)20 July, 2012 23:23
http://www.techworld.com.au/article/431324/wi-
fi_direct_backers_hope_enhanced_standard_makes_more_products_work_together


The Wi-Fi Direct Services specification that the Wi-Fi Alliance plans to 
finish next year should help to extend the use of Wi-Fi Direct beyond 
proprietary implementations, the organization says.

 http://www.wi-fi.org/about/organization

The emerging specification, in the early stages of development at a newly 
formed task group, is intended to help developers write software for core 
uses of Wi-Fi Direct such as printing and file transfer. 

The Alliance's executive director discussed the work in an interview last 
week with IDG News Service.

Wi-Fi Direct was introduced in 2010 and is available in more than 1,100 
certified products, according to Kelly Davis-Felner, marketing director 
of the Wi-Fi Alliance. 

The technology allows Wi-Fi devices to communicate peer to peer without 
having to set up a LAN or go through an access point. The list of 
certified products includes laptops, smartphones, TVs, printers and other 
devices.

However, there aren't enough implementations designed for use between 
products from different vendors, said Davis-Felner.

"What we're seeing is that member companies are using it for ... 
proprietary solutions," Davis-Felner said. "They're enabling things that 
work from a single vendor's handset to a television, or a single vendor's 
set-top box to a television."

That essentially defeats the purpose of having a standard, which 
typically is to make a lot of new products from different vendors more 
attractive because they can work together.

According to Davis-Felner, it was member companies of the Wi-Fi Alliance 
that decided Wi-Fi Direct needed to be enhanced.

"We need to build on the certification program to foster the development 
of (multivendor) services, particularly for ... some of those key use 
cases that were envisioned when we initiated Wi-Fi Direct," Davis-Felner 
said. Those included printing, file-sharing, data synchronization and 
playing video games, she said.

One problem that some users have had is being alerted to the presence of 
a nearby Wi-Fi Direct device, such as a printer, but finding that it 
can't talk to their own device over Wi-Fi Direct. The hooks that vendors 
can use to make their products work with other Wi-Fi Direct devices 
haven't been well enough defined, an engineer who works with the Wi-Fi 
Alliance said last week. Ideally, users should see only devices that they 
can actually use.

To make more products work together, the Alliance plans to define a more 
robust services platform that will make it easier for developers to write 
applications that use Wi-Fi Direct, she said.

Davis-Felner emphasized that this new work will build upon the current 
standard and future products will be backward-compatible with earlier Wi-
Fi Direct gear. No changes will be made to hardware.

The Wi-Fi Alliance needs to do a better job raising awareness of Wi-Fi 
Direct, industry analysts said.

"The opportunity has not really met its potential to date," Farpoint 
Group's Craig Mathias said. He attributes that mostly to a weak marketing 
effort.

"The Wi-Fi people have done a great job of getting the technology 
embedded in everything we use, but they've done a terrible job of making 
that useful beyond connecting to a centralized network," said Avi 
Greengart of Current Analysis.

They run the risk of being pre-empted by the vendor-branded applications 
that use Wi-Fi Direct, Greengart said. It's also possible that other 
short-range wireless technologies, such as Bluetooth and Zigbee, could 
take Wi-Fi's place for some of these uses, he said. That would be 
unfortunate, because so many products already have Wi-Fi hardware and the 
chips are inexpensive.

"If you could properly leverage the Wi-Fi installed base ... you'd have a 
much higher chance of success," Greengart said.

Stephen Lawson covers mobile, storage and networking technologies for The 
IDG News Service. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @sdlawsonmedia. Stephen's 
e-mail address is stephen_lawson at idg.com

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Cheers,
Stephen