Content-centric Routing in Wi-Fi Direct Multi-group Networks

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel content-centric routing architecture for WiFi Direct multi-group networks on Android devices, enabling efficient D2D content discovery and communication, with performance evaluation and comparison to Bluetooth.

Contribution

It introduces new paradigms for intra- and inter-group bidirectional communication and primitives for content advertising and requesting in WiFi Direct multi-group networks.

Findings

Effective content discovery in multi-group WiFi Direct networks

Performance improvements over Bluetooth-based solutions

Feasibility demonstrated on real Android testbed

Abstract

The added value of Device-to-Device (D2D) communication amounts to an efficient content discovery mechanism that enables users to steer their requests toward the node most likely to satisfy them. In this paper, we address the implementation of content-centric routing in a D2D architecture for Android devices based on WiFi Direct, a protocol recently standardised by the Wi-Fi Alliance. After discussing the creation of multiple D2D groups, we introduce novel paradigms featuring intra- and inter-group bidirectional communication. We then present the primitives involved in content advertising and requesting among members of the multi-group network. Finally, we evaluate the performance of our architecture in a real testbed involving Android devices in different group configurations. We also compare the results against the ones achievable exploiting Bluetooth technologies.