Alljoyn based direct proximity service development: Overview and prototype

Proximity awareness, the ability to actively (or passively) and continuously search for relevant value in one's physical proximity, is at the core of mobile revolution that is changing the way we interact with people and things around us. Especially, Device-to-Device (D2D) (peer-to-peer (P2P)) solutions support infrastructure-free and self-organized proximity services, and have great commercial potential from application viewpoint. However, astonishingly, the glaring absence of the practical and easy-to-use proximity service development framework is alarming. This paper aims at investigating the Qualcomm AllJoyn middleware, an open source peer-to-peer software development framework for ad-hoc proximity based D2D communication, and exploring how this middleware can enable the development of distributed application in mobile social networks in proximity (MSNP). Specifically, we thoroughly overview the core concepts and basic components in AllJoyn framework, and summarize the typical workflow of developing AllJoyn based proximity application. Furthermore, an AllJoyn based MSNP prototype, AllChat, is designed and implemented, in which users can enjoy text chat and photo sharing with both group and peer interaction modes in real time.