Peer-to-peer Programming with Wireless Devices

Abstract

Peer-to-Peer programming (P2P) has in recent years become a widely explored research area. With the evolution of wireless technology such as mobile phones, the idea to bring these two technologies together gives a new dimension to P2P communication, collaboration and resource sharing. This master thesis explores the domain of Mobile Peer-to-Peer networking and proposes a Peer-to-Peer System with Wireless Devices. The system is based on an open, protocol-based P2P platform called JXTA. It allows any connected device on the network ranging from sensors and cell phones to personal computers and servers to communicate and collaborate in a Peer-to-Peer manner. It is platform and network independent and designed to be implemented on any networking device. JXTA for J2ME (JXME) is a lightweight version of JXTA that gives P2P functionality to constrained wireless devices. The technology, which is open source, is under development by the JXTA community, and this thesis focuses on the development of JXME for the Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC). The system proposed uses the JXME API, but suggests a more specific approach to implement different Peer operations such as Peer discovery, resource advertising and file transfer. Because of the limitations of wireless devices, one or more powerful Peers need to participate in the network as Proxy Services. This gives both the advantages of a fixed P2P network and the mobility of a wireless device. The prototype developed demonstrates the P2P system with simple collaboration and file sharing. The application has been successfully tested on phone emulators, and network tests show that the system works in a controlled environment. Large file transfer is stable, but highly limited by memory constraints of the device.