A Framework for Multi-Hop Ad-Hoc Networking over Wi-Fi Direct with Android Smart Devices

The wide diffusion of mobile devices that natively support ad hoc communication technologies has led to several protocols for enabling and optimizing Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs). Nevertheless, the actual utilization of MANETs in real life seems limited due to the lack of protocols for the automatic creation and evolution of ad hoc networks. Recently, a novel P2P protocol named Wi-Fi Direct has been proposed and standardized by the Wi-Fi Alliance to facilitate nearby devices’ interconnection. Wi-Fi Direct provides high-performance direct communication among devices, includes different energy management mechanisms, and is now available in most Android mobile devices. However, the current implementation of Wi-Fi Direct on Android has several limitations, making the Wi-Fi Direct network only be a one-hop ad-hoc network. This paper aims to develop a new framework for multi-hop ad hoc networking using Wi-Fi Direct in Android smart devices. The framework includes a connection establishment protocol and a group management protocol. Simulations validate the proposed framework on the OMNeT++ simulator. We analyzed the framework by varying transmission range, number of hops, and buffer size. The results indicate that the framework provides an eventual 100% packet delivery for different transmission ranges and hop count values. The buffer size has enough space for all packets. However, as buffer size decreases, the packet delivery decreases proportionally.