Device-to-device communications with Wi-Fi Direct: overview and experimentation

TLDR

Wi‑Fi Direct is a Wi‑Fi Alliance‑defined technology that enables direct device‑to‑device communication and is expected to have a significant impact because it can be implemented entirely in software on existing Wi‑Fi radios. The article aims to give a comprehensive overview of Wi‑Fi Direct’s novel features and to evaluate its real‑world performance experimentally. The authors performed experiments measuring discovery and connection delays and assessing the power‑saving protocols of Wi‑Fi Direct devices. They quantified typical discovery and connection delays and the effectiveness of power‑saving protocols, and claim this is the first comprehensive overview and experimental study of Wi‑Fi Direct.

Abstract

Wi-Fi Direct is a new technology defined by the Wi-Fi Alliance aimed at enhancing direct device to device communications in Wi-Fi. Thus, given the wide base of devices with Wi-Fi capabilities, and the fact that it can be entirely implemented in software over traditional Wi-Fi radios, this technology is expected to have a significant impact. In this article we provide a thorough overview of the novel functionalities defined in Wi-Fi Direct, and present an experimental evaluation that portrays the performance to be expected in real scenarios. In particular, our results quantify the delays to be expected in practice when Wi-Fi Direct devices discover each other and establish a connection, and the performance of its novel power saving protocols. To the best of the authors¿ knowledge this is the first article in the state of the art that provides a wide overview and experimental evaluation of Wi-Fi Direct.