Android AdHoc IBSS Wifi support

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Anders

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Oct 23, 2008, 8:33:47 PM10/23/08
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Hi,

The current Android SDK doesn't support the application developer to
create ad hoc IBSS WiFi connections between two user terminals.
The WiFi API provides some very nice features that allows the
developer to create really cool applications that can connect to the
Internet through a WiFi AP. However, it doesn't allow that
configuration to be ad hoc (IBSS) rather than AP.

When looking at the kernel and driver code, I can see that the core
support for IBSS is available. What is needed is an API from the
kernel to the SDK that allows the developer to setup and configure the
IBSS so that communication over this link will be possible.

My question is, when is Google planning to add this support?

Or there any other users or projects out there who are planning to add
this support?

Thanks,
Anders

Anders Nilsson Plymoth

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Oct 28, 2008, 9:36:36 PM10/28/08
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No comments on this?

No one interested in ad hoc mode for android?

No info on when/if this support will be added to the SDK?

Anders

Jason Parekh

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Oct 29, 2008, 8:32:29 PM10/29/08
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Hi Anders,

I'll check with the Wi-Fi framework eng to see where this falls on his priorities.  We haven't had a formal requirement, but we do agree it'd be nice to have in the framework.

jason

Adrian Caceres

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Oct 31, 2008, 5:24:44 PM10/31/08
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Hi Jason,

 

While you are at it, can you ask about wpa-enterprise support and WPS (wifi protected setup) support?  Thanks

 

- adrian


Jason Parekh

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Oct 31, 2008, 5:35:15 PM10/31/08
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We're working on adding support for ad-hoc networks, but enterprise and WPS are lower priority.

If you're up for it, enterprise could be a low hanging fruit given wpa_supplicant already supports it. :)  Not sure about its support for WPS though.

jason

Dave At Peoplemerge

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Dec 2, 2008, 10:47:02 PM12/2/08
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Hear Hear! I just bought a G1 and ad-hoc networking is a "must have"
for me!

On Oct 31, 1:35 pm, "Jason Parekh" <jasonpar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> We're working on adding support for ad-hoc networks, but enterprise and WPS
> are lower priority.
>
> If you're up for it, enterprise could be a low hanging fruit given
> wpa_supplicant already supports it. :)  Not sure about its support for WPS
> though.
>
> jason
>
> On Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 2:24 PM, Adrian Caceres <Adr...@zing.net> wrote:
> >  Hi Jason,
>
> > While you are at it, can you ask about wpa-enterprise support and WPS (wifi
> > protected setup) support?  Thanks
>
> > - adrian
> >  ------------------------------
>
> > *From:* android-...@googlegroups.com [mailto:
> > android-...@googlegroups.com] *On Behalf Of *Jason Parekh
> > *Sent:* Wednesday, October 29, 2008 5:32 PM
> > *To:* android-...@googlegroups.com
> > *Subject:* Re: Android AdHoc IBSS Wifi support
>
> > Hi Anders,
>
> > I'll check with the Wi-Fi framework eng to see where this falls on his
> > priorities.  We haven't had a formal requirement, but we do agree it'd be
> > nice to have in the framework.
>
> > jason
>
> > On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 6:36 PM, Anders Nilsson Plymoth <
> > lanils...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > No comments on this?
>
> > No one interested in ad hoc mode for android?
>
> > No info on when/if this support will be added to the SDK?
>
> > Anders
>

Anders Nilsson Plymoth

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Dec 25, 2008, 1:16:16 PM12/25/08
to android-...@googlegroups.com


On Oct 31, 1:35 pm, "Jason Parekh" <jasonpar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> We're working on adding support for ad-hoc networks, but enterprise and WPS
> are lower priority.
>

Any updates about the support for ad hoc networks?

Anders

 

flukshun

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Dec 27, 2008, 8:52:20 PM12/27/08
to android-platform
im also very curious where this stands. my personal interest is in
using the ad-hoc mode to use an android device as a gateway for
tethering. is that level of support planned?

CKolias

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Feb 6, 2009, 9:56:00 AM2/6/09
to android-platform
Hello? is there something going on for ad-hoc mode?
I am really interested any news whatsoever?

On Dec 28 2008, 2:52 am, flukshun <fluks...@gmail.com> wrote:
> im also very curious where this stands. my personal interest is in
> using thead-hocmode to use an android device as a gateway for

Neo

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Mar 11, 2009, 3:05:56 PM3/11/09
to android-platform
Hi,

I'm also interest on developing ad-hoc network system in Android. Are
their any +ve news on adding WiFi ad-hoc supporting APIs to Android?

Anders Nilsson Plymoth

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Oct 3, 2009, 1:07:03 PM10/3/09
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Hi,

I am a bit surprised that there still is no support for ad hoc networking, not even with static IP addresses. I can flip it on with a single bit in tiwlan.ini, but that is not something a normal user can do.
All I can say is that I, and many others are really disappointed by this. I tend to believe there might be policy involved in this, in order to curb tethering. I hope I am wrong, and I hope you choose to flip the bit really soon.

Thanks,
Anders

Onno

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Oct 28, 2009, 9:52:36 AM10/28/09
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Hi,
I think you are right. This might spoil the market for mobile internet
access a bit. They have other products for providing mobile internet
access for your laptop. This must feel as if they are giving stuff
away for free.

Problably they are still thinking about the business model. Are G1
users willing to pay for a separate device for mobile internet access
for laptops? Can/should we create a separate subscription for users
that want to use their G1 as a wireless router? What is the
competition doing/offering?
Best Regards,
Onno



On Oct 3, 6:07 pm, Anders Nilsson Plymoth <lanils...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am a bit surprised that there still is no support for ad hoc networking,
> not even with static IP addresses.
>
> I can flip it on with a single bit intiwlan.ini, but that is not something a normal user can do.
> All I can say is that I, and many others are really disappointed by this. I
> tend to believe there might be policy involved in this, in order to curb
> tethering. I hope I am wrong, and I hope you choose to flip the bit really
> soon.
>
> Thanks,
> Anders
>
> On Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 11:35 PM, Jason Parekh <jasonpar...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > We're working on adding support for ad-hoc networks, but enterprise and WPS
> > are lower priority.
>
> > If you're up for it, enterprise could be a low hanging fruit given
> > wpa_supplicant already supports it. :)  Not sure about its support for WPS
> > though.
>
> > jason
>
> > On Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 2:24 PM, Adrian Caceres <Adr...@zing.net> wrote:
>
> >>  Hi Jason,
>
> >> While you are at it, can you ask about wpa-enterprise support and WPS
> >> (wifi protected setup) support?  Thanks
>
> >> - adrian
> >>  ------------------------------
>
> >> *From:* android-...@googlegroups.com [mailto:
> >> android-...@googlegroups.com] *On Behalf Of *Jason Parekh
> >> *Sent:* Wednesday, October 29, 2008 5:32 PM
> >> *To:* android-...@googlegroups.com
> >> *Subject:* Re: Android AdHoc IBSS Wifi support
>
> >> Hi Anders,
>
> >> I'll check with the Wi-Fi framework eng to see where this falls on his
> >> priorities.  We haven't had a formal requirement, but we do agree it'd be
> >> nice to have in the framework.
>
> >> jason
>
> >> On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 6:36 PM, Anders Nilsson Plymoth <
> >> lanils...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >> No comments on this?
>
> >> No one interested in ad hoc mode for android?
>
> >> No info on when/if this support will be added to the SDK?
>
> >> Anders
>

Mrigesh

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Nov 27, 2009, 12:04:19 AM11/27/09
to android-platform
i recently bought a htc tattoo ... which didnot connect to ad-hoc
network :( ..and also it does not support proxy-authentication ... so
in short .. i am not able to access any google goodies for my
android ... and the worst part is .. i have to install apps
"offline" ... through my pc instead of getting them grom google
market

any help anyone !!

Anders Nilsson Plymoth

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Oct 8, 2010, 12:27:37 PM10/8/10
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Any update on this? You have been working on this for 2 years, and I wonder when you are planning to release this support. Is it very very hard?

Anders

Irfan Sheriff

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Oct 8, 2010, 9:59:02 PM10/8/10
to android-...@googlegroups.com
What is the use case you are looking at ? 

Ad-hoc has slipped in priority in favor of other superior solutions keeping power constraints and security in mind. Soft Ap support exists and wi-fi direct support will come in the future.

Irfan

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Anders Nilsson Plymoth

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Oct 10, 2010, 7:58:29 AM10/10/10
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What other superior solutions are you referring to? Soft-ap does not provide support for ad hoc. Tethering yes, but that has nothing to do with ad hoc. Power constraint and security are implementation issues, and has nothing to do with the technology itself. In effect infrastructure mode (aka AP mode) is more limited as it forces one device to be in this mode before any communication can take place. Nothing prevents an AP from being an AP in ad hoc mode, besides software issues where some devices such as android lack this basic support.

My use case is what ad hoc mode was designed for, allowing devices to communicate directly without the need for an infrastructure AP. From what I heard of wifi direct, it will support this, and I greatly look forward to this for many reasons.
For now, ad hoc is not supported by android, although the 802.11 chipsets. It is thus easy to enable it from the source code, but regular shipped lack this. Here I am instead forced to use Symbian or IPhone, even though Android is my preferred choice.

Irfan Sheriff

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Oct 10, 2010, 10:52:49 AM10/10/10
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My use case is what ad hoc mode was designed for, allowing devices to communicate directly without the need for an infrastructure AP. From what I heard of wifi direct, it will support this, and I greatly look forward to this for many reasons.

Wifi direct is a layer that auto configures one of the devices as a Soft Ap. The benefits you have with Soft Ap are the same that you will get with wifi direct (wpa2 and power management). Thats not to say there is no good reason to add ad-hoc, there is - compatibility with devices that only support ad-hoc.

While Soft Ap is meant for tethering in its current use, you dont really need an uplink 3g connection to activate Soft Ap. Soft Ap should work as a solution for device-to-device communication. Wifi direct will make the process of selecting one of the devices as an AP go away.

Expect to see both direct and ad-hoc support in the future.

Anders Nilsson Plymoth

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Oct 11, 2010, 2:21:30 PM10/11/10
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While Soft Ap is meant for tethering in its current use, you dont really need an uplink 3g connection to activate Soft Ap. Soft Ap should work as a solution for device-to-device communication. Wifi direct will make the process of selecting one of the devices as an AP go away.


Yes, you may use soft ap as a device-to-device solution, but the issue I had was how applications should automatically determine which device should be an AP, and which one to be a client. Its nice to hear that wifi direct will solve this issue. Do you have any idea when Android will support this?

There is still the issue when three or more device wishes to communicate with each other. One of my use cases as well. In this case, one of them still has be an AP and forward traffic on behalf of the other two, even though they are within range. This is suboptimal and uses extra energy. Ad hoc is ideal in this situation. What happens if the AP device moves away? Will wifi direct handle this? Would it break connections?

 
Expect to see both direct and ad-hoc support in the future.

I greatly look forward to this.
 

Anders Nilsson Plymoth

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Oct 11, 2010, 2:18:18 PM10/11/10
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While Soft Ap is meant for tethering in its current use, you dont really need an uplink 3g connection to activate Soft Ap. Soft Ap should work as a solution for device-to-device communication. Wifi direct will make the process of selecting one of the devices as an AP go away.


Yes, you may use soft ap as a device-to-device solution, but the issue I had that was for applications to automatically determine which one should be an AP, and which one to be a client. Its nice to hear that wifi direct will solve this issue? Do you have any idea when Android will support this?

There is still the issue when three or more device wishes to communicate with each other. One of my use cases as well. In this case, one of them still has be an AP and forward traffic between the other two, even though they are in range. This is suboptimal and uses extra energy. Ad hoc is ideal in this situation. What happens if the AP device moves away? Will wifi direct handle this? Would it break connections?

 
Expect to see both direct and ad-hoc support in the future.

I greatly look forward to this.
 

Anders Nilsson Plymoth

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Feb 24, 2011, 4:36:03 AM2/24/11
to android-...@googlegroups.com, Irfan Sheriff


Expect to see both direct and ad-hoc support in the future.

 


Any updates on this?

/Anders

Paul Gardner-Stephen

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Feb 24, 2011, 10:51:55 PM2/24/11
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I too, and all of ServalProject.org are waiting on this functionality
so that we can begin providing software that can be used in disaster
response, such as the recent earthquakes that have devastated Haiti
and Christchurch NZ.

We basically have a major NGO saying that they can make use of our
technology as soon as we get it to a point where we can install it on
off-the-shelf android phones without rooting them first.

The lack of WiFi adhoc/IBSS mode is the showstopper for us.

An API for adjusting routing tables would be helpful as well, but we
can work around that, if only we can get the wifi on in adhoc mode.

I know it sounds trite, but lives will literally be saved by the
inclusion of this feature.

PLEASE get IBSS/adhoc mode wifi into Android as soon as possible, and
preferably back-port it to to Froyo so that it can become available in
OTA updates.

Paul.

On Feb 24, 7:36 pm, Anders Nilsson Plymoth <lanils...@gmail.com>
wrote:

simon111

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Feb 28, 2011, 6:39:22 PM2/28/11
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I've ported the newest wpa_supplicant program for WiFi Direct on the Android platform successfully.

This video demonstrates the WiFi Direct functionality using my own program.

I use 2 Android devices in this demo.
A) Mini6410 development board 
   Its IP address is 192.168.2.1
   I create a P2P group on this device. It's a P2P device using the wpa_supplicant.
   Every legacy device can connect it and get a IP address from the udhcp server.
   I run a Web server(boa) on it. The main page is the file /www/index.html.
   Every legacy device can browse the main page with the URL http://192.168.2.1
   This device connects to my laptop with a USB cable, I can run the commands using the command "adb shell"

B) SmartQ T7 Android tablet 
   It's a legacy device. It connects the P2P device and browse main page of the P2P device.


The following is my operations:
1) run the program udhcp and boa at device A. I do this step with a script file demo.wifi.p2p.android
2) run the activity Test to start wpalicant, and create a P2P group
   I run the command "/p2p.run/wpa_cli status " to get the SSID of the created P2P group;
     run the command "/p2p.run/wpa_cli p2p_get_passphrase" to get the passphrase of the P2P group;
     run the command "netcfg" to get the IP address of the device A.
3) Connect the group on the device B. This operation is very simply, just like to connect a AP.
4) Visit the main page in the device A with URL http://192.168.2.1
5) Modify the main page in the device A , and refresh the browser on the device B, the content in the browse will change. 

So far, the device A and device B can communicate without a access point.

 Hello, WiFi-Direct


dean

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Jan 9, 2012, 8:08:24 PM1/9/12
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I got the new Nexus and it doesn't have support for adhoc :-(

I sometimes go into the outback and the only thing that can connect to the internet is my work's computer, running XP and has a 4G dongle. So I want to be able to connect my phone to the laptop to get internet through the dongle.
I tried creating an adhoc network on my laptop, but of couse that did not work. How can I connect my phone to my computer's internet?

刘旭东

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Jan 10, 2012, 10:07:36 PM1/10/12
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First, I think you must create a adhoc AP on your PC, As I know, In Windows 7 ,you can create ad hoc network ,and the phone can connect it. In XP, I don't know how to create adhoc. 

Maybe my friend has the method to achieve this goal. If I get the method , I will email you.



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Edgars Znots

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Jan 30, 2012, 6:57:23 AM1/30/12
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Dear Irfan,

There are several important use cases that will not be solved by WiFi Direct / SoftAP. One of them being ServalProject.org, mentioned by Paul. Another is ALAN (Ad-Hoc Location Awareness Network), which I am working on since 2010.

Since Android phones are becoming widespread, they have tremendous potential to be used in emergency search & rescue scenarios as well as creating permanent resilient communication networks. Please provide us with API to control IBSS and innovate, which will lead to new cool networked apps! :)

SoftAP still requires that all clients must be able to reach the central SoftAP node. There is no multi-hop capability in SoftAP. True Ad-Hoc is a perfect solution for creating multi-hop wireless networks or networks with sparsely connected nodes that enter each-others coverage randomly for a short moment. And in case there is no necessity for real-time communications (voice/video calls), delay-tolerant messaging (chat, SMS, email) can be implemented even in Ad-Hoc mode quite efficiently by syncing node clocks (via GPS, etc) and turning WiFi chip on/off in sync with others, if only we the developers have access to proper API. While I perfectly agree that 90% of use cases (ad-hoc proximity gaming, chat, etc) have <5 nodes, require no multi-hop capability and thus can be implemented with WiFI Direct / SoftAP, true Ad-Hoc is also necessary for its unique possibilities.

Currently I need to develop ALAN on Nokia N900, which is a TRUE Linux phone and works marvelously for R&D, just like laptop. Maemo/MeeGo and Symbian support all Ad-Hoc features that I need, iOS supports some, and (unrooted) Android supports none.

In summary - developers have no incentive to invest time and resources in development of Android based ad-hoc multi-hop networking apps unless we know that Android is going to ship Ad-Hoc enabled out-of-box in the near future.

Regards,
Edgars

Paul Gardner-Stephen

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Feb 2, 2012, 3:32:19 PM2/2/12
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Hello,

I wish to weigh in to support what Edgars is saying here, and what
others (including myself) have raised in the past.

Speaking from the perspective of the Serval Project, we are needlessly
expending hundreds of hours of effort to make adhoc IBSS work to some
degree on Android, with substantial effort required for each different
handset, which is delaying our ability to get our software to
deployable quality, all because of the lack of adhoc IBSS support.

It should be noted that the wpa_supplicant goes to some effort to
PREVENT adhoc mode, i.e., it is non-accidental that Android does not
support adhoc IBSS mode. Wearing my cynical hat for a moment, the
most likely reason that this has been done is to appease carriers who
do not want to see mobile telephones able to do things that they fear
(unfoundedly so) will in some way undermine their profitability.
While I have no evidence that this is the case, hope that it is not
the case, and do not wish to suggest that it is the case, I
nonetheless implore Google/Android to consider that if this is the
case, that it would be an instance of betraying the "do no evil"
mantra of Google, in that it would put the protection of corporate
interests ahead of saving lives.

If indeed there are other legitimate reasons why adhoc IBSS mode
continues to be neglected by Android, I ask that you explain to us
what those reasons are, and why it is necessary to actively filter
adhoc SSIDs out in wpa_supplicant, and then think about whether those
reasons really are warranted. Of course, best of all would be for
Google/Android to simply implement an adhoc IBSS API on Android. It's
not hard. The people over at CyanogenMod have had it working for
quite some time now. Patches have been submitted to the Android team
in the past, where they were seemingly ignored for months until they
were too old to be incorporated into the updated version of Android.

Here is an opportunity for Google/Android to step up to the plate and
do something simple and low-cost that will over time have profound
impact in the world. It has been three years already. Let's not wait
another three for action on this front, after all, people's lives
might just depend on it.

Yours sincerely,
Dr. Paul Gardner-Stephen,
Founder Serval Project,
Shuttleworth Telecommunications Fellow,
Rural, Remote & Humanitarian Telecommunications Fellow, Flinders
University.

On Jan 30, 9:57 pm, Edgars Znots <edgars.zn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Irfan,
>
> There are several important use cases that will not be solved by WiFi
> Direct / SoftAP. One of them being ServalProject.org, mentioned by Paul.
> Another is ALAN (Ad-Hoc Location Awareness Network), which I am working on
> since 2010.http://tnc2010.terena.org/schedule/posters/50/http://www.terena.org/news/fullstory.php?news_id=2632

Irfan Sheriff

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Feb 7, 2012, 3:52:50 PM2/7/12
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Hey folks,

Wi-Fi direct is the priority for getting p2p right at the moment and we would like get the one hop p2p exchange working really well with concurrency (p2p and client operation) and service discovery on top. ICS was a first step.

That said, we realize it does not address multi-hop scenarios. Adhoc support is still planned for this year.

Thanks

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Irfan Sheriff

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Aug 22, 2012, 12:57:51 PM8/22/12
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Wifi Direct offers a better alternative for single hop p2p exchange (concurrent p2p & sta operation, and it goes through wifi alliance testing). JellyBean introduced single channel concurrency. We will add multi-channel concurrency in a future update which should allow p2p and sta operation to happen simultaneously on separate channels.

The mis-understanding is that legacy devices are left out. That is not the case, a legacy STA device that can do WPA2 can join a wifi direct group. WifiP2pManager API on android allows an application to exchange data with legacy STA devices.

The main issue is multi-hop n/w support and I agree that is a drawback that we would like to address.

On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 5:41 AM, Nilesh Trivedi <nile...@gmail.com> wrote:
It has been 4 and half years since this issue 82 was first reported: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=82 . This thread started in October 2008. We were told that it's being worked on first in November 2008, then in October 2010 and then again in February 2012. Yet, ad-hoc remains unavailable as of now. (I'm using Jelly Bean 4.1.1 on Samsung Nexus S GSM).

It's ridiculous. While Apple iPhone and iPod have supported ad-hoc WiFi from the beginning, Google hasn't even cared to comment on the issue. Here the excuse being given is WiFi Direct which may not even be available on operating systems like Linux or WinXP, while millions of users continue to suffer TODAY for the lack of ad-hoc WiFi in stock Android.

(On a sidenote: similar issue was disabling USB mass storage in favor of MTP. However, at least there were good technical reasons in that case. Here, Android has crippled essential technology which exists today while a future technology is being worked out.)

The community has even produced workarounds (Eg: http://szym.net/2010/12/adhoc-wifi-in-android/ ). Ad-Hoc WiFi remains the most common reason to jailbreak/root android phones / tablets.

Android developers, I urge you to just read the comments over here once: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=82 and see for yourself how infuriating this issue has been for Android users.

I hope someone cares.

cheers
nilesh
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/android-platform/-/2BIiFlNGfHAJ.

Paul Gardner-Stephen

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Aug 22, 2012, 6:36:18 PM8/22/12
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Hello,

It is pleasing to hear that there remain long term plans to allow multi-hop communications.

However, as Nilesh has pointed out, and we have been suffering for YEARS waiting for action on this point.  This is despite the fact that, as the CyanogenMod team has shown, it is entirely possible to ALLOW ad-hoc WiFi instead of explicitly BLOCKING it in wpa_supplicant.  

At the risk of repeating myself, it is not hard for Google to remove the artificial barrier present in Android that prevents the use of ad-hoc WiFi -- probably no harder than fending off the periodic posts on this thread.

For our particular application, humanitarian mesh telephony, it is not an exaggeration to say that the lack of ad-hoc WiFi on Android has, and continues to hamper and delay our activities in this space, and as a result, our ability to contribute to improving the human condition.

So I challenge Google/Android to either:

1. With all haste incorporate the CyanogenMod ad-hoc WiFi modifications (or some other approach to allowing ad-hoc WiFi) into mainline Android, and communicate intention and estimated time-line for this to occur to the community and this list;

or

2. Identify a clear and compelling reason why not to adopt the CyanogenMod-pioneered approach of enabling ad-hoc WiFi,  (including WHY and HOW it would be WORSE for Android to include their approach than to continue to not support ad-hoc WiFi) and communicate it promptly to the community and this list.  "Something better is coming in <unspecified timeframe>" is not a clear and compelling reason.

Paul.

Nilesh Trivedi

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Sep 21, 2012, 10:04:45 AM9/21/12
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Hi Irfan,

Can we at least know why ad-hoc Wi-Fi is EXPLICITLY disabled in Android from day 1? "Getting P2P right" doesn't seem enough explanation for the following reasons:
  • iOS devices have supported ad-hoc wi-fi from first generation
  • XDA devs have occasionally provided patched wpa_supplicant versions which seem to work perfectly
  • Android mods like CyanogenMod etc. have enabled ad-hoc Wi-Fi as well
Additionally, because there are only 3-months left before the year ends, can we know if there has been any progress on Adhoc support?

cheers
nilesh

Jean-Baptiste Queru

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Sep 21, 2012, 12:16:16 PM9/21/12
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Do you have a link to the commit(s) that disabled that support? I'll
have a quick try at reverting that.

JBQ
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--
Jean-Baptiste M. "JBQ" Queru
Technical Lead, Android Open Source Project, Google.

Questions sent directly to me that have no reason for being private
will likely get ignored or forwarded to a public forum with no further
warning.

Paul Gardner-Stephen

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Sep 23, 2012, 6:27:47 AM9/23/12
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Hello,

On Saturday, September 22, 2012 1:46:34 AM UTC+9:30, JBQ wrote:
Do you have a link to the commit(s) that disabled that support? I'll
have a quick try at reverting that.

There are a couple of issues in this that both require fixing if ad-hoc WiFi is to work on Android:

1. wpa_supplicant has from the outset needlessly filtered out ad-hoc cells when scanning for WiFi networks, and prevents joining them in the same way.  The solution here is to remove the filter.  CyanogenMod has a patched wpa_supplicant that solves this issue that you could use as a basis for fixing this in main-line Android.

2. Newer Android releases seem to explicitly exclude ad-hoc support from the WiFi driver.  This is especially true of Jelly Bean releases with the WiFi driver part of the kernel instead of being a loadable module, such as, if I remember correctly, with the Nexus S.  The solution there is to stop removing ad-hoc support from that driver.

I am happy to work with you to deal with these issues if that is helpful.

Once it is back in, the next step is to add interoperability testing of ad-hoc WiFi to the Android certification process, so that it actually performs as expected.  Again, happy to help with some of the technical details there if helpful.
 
Paul.

Anup Kulkarni

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Oct 4, 2012, 2:40:08 PM10/4/12
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Hi JBQ,

Please try with following patch in external/wpa_supplcant_6, I do not have the 0.8x code handy right now, but the change should be at similar place. Tomorrow I can test the change on one of the platforms I have and confirm -

diff --git a/wpa_supplicant/events.c b/wpa_supplicant/events.c
index 9d2f4ea..6893af8 100644
--- a/wpa_supplicant/events.c
+++ b/wpa_supplicant/events.c
@@ -589,9 +589,9 @@ wpa_supplicant_select_bss_non_wpa(struct wpa_supplicant *wpa_s,
                 continue;
             }
 
-            if (bss->caps & IEEE80211_CAP_IBSS) {
+            if (bss->caps & IEEE80211_CAP_IBSS && ssid->mode != IEEE80211_MODE_IBSS) {
                 wpa_printf(MSG_DEBUG, "   skip - "
-                       "IBSS (adhoc) network");
+                       "Incorrect IBSS (adhoc) network");
                 continue;
             }
 
Thanks
Anup

Paul Gardner-Stephen

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Oct 7, 2012, 1:43:23 AM10/7/12
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Hello again,


On Friday, September 21, 2012 6:16:34 PM UTC+2, JBQ wrote:
Do you have a link to the commit(s) that disabled that support? I'll
have a quick try at reverting that.

Can you confirm that you are still interested in looking at this, and have not been told to not take any actions to facilitate ad-hoc support on Android?

I ask this because I have received some (further) evidence that there is an internal list in Android/Google of carrier-specified functions that Android is not to support, and that proper ad-hoc WiFi support is at or near the top of that list.  

To put it simply, I am led to believe by multiple sources that there is a firm policy at some high level in the Android organisation that ad-hoc WiFi support is not to be added under any circumstances (which is Android's choice), and that the existence of that policy is kept secret (which is not really nice at all).

This situation is something that we have suspected for some time now, and it would be very nice to have it actually clarified.  A clear categorical denial by someone, followed up by some positive steps to adding ad-hoc WiFi support would be the appropriate means of counteracting this, and perhaps even an explanation as to why JellyBean roms have taken further steps to make it even harder to access ad-hoc WiFi mode, since it does not seem to make sense from any other perspective.

However, the standard policy that seems to be applied to these situations is that developers are told to not continue to even engage in the conversation (as can be seen by many of the previous abortive conversations in this thread where an Android developer offers some assistance or interest, and then suddenly goes silent about a week later), so please understand that it will be necessary to treat a lack of response as a passive confirmation of this situation.

I await your possible reply.

Paul.

Paul Gardner-Stephen

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Nov 19, 2012, 2:57:21 PM11/19/12
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Whatever Google's reasons for not including ad-hoc WiFi support, this is very unlikely to be one of them.
For example iOS, Windows Mobile 6, Symbian, OpenWRT routers, most PCs and laptops all support ad-hoc WiFi.

On Sunday, November 18, 2012 12:44:14 AM UTC+10:30, DonBoy wrote:
Maybe some realised that ad hoc wifi, or parts of the algorithm are claimed py patent rights to some of the big patent holder ?
In that case Google walks on the thin edge not to be charged with AD HOC support in Android and keeps silences - no support,
no explanations - talk down this feature !?

Cayman Nava

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Nov 26, 2012, 3:39:16 PM11/26/12
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I called the Nexus support at 855-836-3987 to see if I could get some answers.

Perhaps if we voice our opinions over the phone, Google will answer. Worth a shot.

I told them:
-the hardware for ad-hoc support is there
-the technology is there(over 10 years old)
-Android appears to explicitly disallow ad-hoc connections
-iOS, Windows Phone, Symbian, Linux, MacOS, Windows, etc. all support ad-hoc connections -- This isn't some obscure functionality unsupported everywhere!
-There are many support issues open regarding this problem(as early as issue 82!!) yet there seems to be no answer from Google in the hundreds of pages I've gone through -- I need answers

855-836-3987 -- Try it out~

-Cayman

Bruno Randolf

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Mar 13, 2013, 1:11:23 PM3/13/13
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Nilesh Trivedi

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Mar 14, 2013, 8:01:11 AM3/14/13
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Wow, This is awesome, Bruno! This will help a lot of people even if this isn't accepted in AOSP.

Would it be a good idea to share these patches somewhere independently? I'm not sure about the future of this in the AOSP repo.

Thanks again.

cheers
nilesh



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Bruno Randolf

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Mar 14, 2013, 8:51:24 AM3/14/13
to android-...@googlegroups.com, Nilesh Trivedi
On 03/14/2013 12:01 PM, Nilesh Trivedi wrote:
> Wow, This is awesome, Bruno! This will help a lot of people even if this
> isn't accepted in AOSP.
>
> Would it be a good idea to share these patches somewhere independently?
> I'm not sure about the future of this in the AOSP repo.

Right now we are publishing the patches on our page:
(http://www.thinktube.com/android-tech/46-android-wifi-ibss). So far
it's just a couple of patches which can be applied manually...

But if there is sufficient interest, we can also upload our repos to
github or somewhere... It really depends on the AOSP review progress and
the amount of community interest. We are ready to collaborate to get a
good solution for AOSP and IBSS users alike.

bruno

> Thanks again.
>
> cheers
> nilesh
>
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 10:41 PM, Bruno Randolf <randol...@gmail.com
> <mailto:randol...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Hello!
>
> Check here for a modified Android 4.2.2 with IBSS support:
>
> http://www.thinktube.com/android-tech/46-android-wifi-ibss
>
> Changes are submitted to AOSP Gerrit:
>
> https://android-review.googlesource.com/53582
> https://android-review.googlesource.com/53583
> https://android-review.googlesource.com/53580
> https://android-review.googlesource.com/53581
> https://android-review.googlesource.com/53584
> https://android-review.googlesource.com/53585
>
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Bruno Randolf

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Apr 22, 2013, 1:32:58 PM4/22/13
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CyanogenMod has included our IBSS framework changes and it's nightly builds come with out-of-the-box support for Ad-Hoc mode on a number of devices:
  • Samsung Galaxy S, Samsung Captivate, Samsung Vibrant and Samsung Fascinate ("aries")
  • Nexus 7 ("grouper")
  • Galaxy Nexus ("maguro")
  • Nexus S ("crespo")

I hope more devices can be supported in the future.

bruno

On Friday, April 19, 2013 4:49:23 PM UTC+1, Derek Foley wrote:
I've just found this is my first major issue with Android. Today I needed to be able to access an Ad-hoc network on my solar panel inverter (enasolar) using my Android tablet & phone - its the only way to configure its IP settings so I can monitor its output via wifi and set it up to connect to my home network. Without a laptop I'm stuck as we only have 2 android devices - oh hold on - Perhaps my partner's daughter's Windows phone can connect to it!

There must be other hardware devices like mine out there that rely on setup in this way using Adhoc.

On Friday, 24 October 2008 01:33:47 UTC+1, Anders wrote:
Hi,

The current Android SDK doesn't support the application developer to
create ad hoc IBSS WiFi connections between two user terminals.
The WiFi API provides some very nice features that allows the
developer to create really cool applications that can connect to the

Paul Gardner-Stephen

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Apr 23, 2013, 4:22:37 PM4/23/13
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Hello,

See also the recent thread under "Peer-to-peer Wifi ad-hoc" for alternative solutions.

Also please make sure you star the Wi-Fi ad-hoc request on the Android bug tracker so that Google knows that people care about this:

Nilesh Trivedi

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May 31, 2013, 2:45:14 AM5/31/13
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Commenting on this issue has been disabled today: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=82

No updates were provided on the status of the issue even though 5463 users have starred this.

cheers
nilesh

Nilesh Trivedi

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Jun 19, 2013, 5:02:46 PM6/19/13
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Hi Bruno,

Any updates on the review progress of your patch in AOSP?

cheers
nilesh

Bruno Randolf

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Jun 19, 2013, 7:06:10 PM6/19/13
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Hi Nilesh!

There has been some review, but unfortunately I haven't heard anything
since about one month...

bruno
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Zak Wilson

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May 28, 2014, 3:34:25 PM5/28/14
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This remains a problem today, and it is the second-most starred bug in AOSP. I'd be shocked if this was technically difficult to add at the OS level, as Linux has the required support, and third-party Android builds, notably Cyanogenmod do include ad-hoc network support.

I don't care if wifi direct is somehow better. I care that when I'm at a friend's house with no data reception and no wifi, but that friend has a laptop plugged in to ethernet, I can create a wifi network on the laptop and connect my phone to it. I also care about potentially life-saving mesh networks for emergency situations involving the collapse of civil infrastructure. This is low-hanging fruit as far as making the world a better place.

Nilesh Trivedi

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May 29, 2014, 1:35:33 AM5/29/14
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Zak,

It's not difficult to add. In fact, it was _explicitly_ removed from Android. The bug is 5 year old now. Google has never responded to it and recently, they even disabled comments on the bug. Bruno Randolf submitted a patch to AOSP that enables it but that patch still hasn't been merged and no comments have been given on that patch.

It is safe to assume that Android/AOSP will never support ad-hoc Wi-Fi.

--


On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 1:04 AM, Zak Wilson <zak.w...@gmail.com> wrote:
This remains a problem today, and it is the second-most starred bug in AOSP. I'd be shocked if this was technically difficult to add at the OS level, as Linux has the required support, and third-party Android builds, notably Cyanogenmod do include ad-hoc network support.

I don't care if wifi direct is somehow better. I care that when I'm at a friend's house with no data reception and no wifi, but that friend has a laptop plugged in to ethernet, I can create a wifi network on the laptop and connect my phone to it. I also care about potentially life-saving mesh networks for emergency situations involving the collapse of civil infrastructure. This is low-hanging fruit as far as making the world a better place.

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JUGAL SHAH

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Mar 25, 2016, 10:32:18 AM3/25/16
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hello Bruno
I referred the link you gave 
I got 2 phones with Adhoc (ibss) mode under add a network option 
But it doesn't provide any option to create a adhoc network

Paul Gardner-Stephen

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Mar 28, 2016, 9:59:06 AM3/28/16
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As you can see from the comment you replied to, there has been no action in 3 years, and Google for whatever reason, seem to be completely set against including IBSS / ad-hoc WiFi support in Android. 

This is despite it being one of the most requested features for Android. Ever.

This is despite the humanitarian imperative to allow devices to communicate when cellular infrastructure goes down in a disaster.

Given the lack of sensible explanations from Google, it seems that they are simply opposed to it, and will never change their minds.

I recommend you use Bluetooth, or an external device to link the phones. This is what we have been forced to do for the Serval Mesh.

Paul.
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