Android Broadcasting / Receiving Data without Wifi Hotspot or Wifi Direct

androidbroadcastwifiwifip2pwireless

My question is that is it possible to send and receive data between multiple android devices via broadcasting over wifi without establishing p2p connection?

Our professor asked us to design a wireless network system in which you broadcast a message within your android phone, and the other android phones nearby receive it and broadcast it again so that the other phones can receive it and it continues like that. In this way, for example, when someone writes a message in a classroom or café everyone will be able to receive it and broadcast it again. (like an adhoc network system). And although my professor believes it can be achievable, I didn't find anything online like this kind of android network system. So my question is again is it possible to do something like that?

Any helpful leads and references will be appreciated.

Edit: I had to change the title of the question.

I couldn't find a proper solution so I tried the following method so far: I set up a UDP messaging app using Wifi hotspot (it works perfectly for multi clients). The phone who turns on the hotspot is the server and others who connect to it are the clients. Then, I decided to turn this system into an adhoc-like system where there would be more than one hotspot and the clients would connect to them in cycling order and serve as a bridge among these servers.(every second, they will switch to other hotspot and vice versa.) So, they will carry the messages from one network to another. (I know it is very inefficient and prone to time delays; but it is the only idea I have come up with so far.)

When I told this system to my professor, he said that it is too complicated and I just need to broadcast a message from a device to a common channel(without setting up a network connection), and other devices will listen to this broadcast channel(without connecting to a network system), receive the message and broadcast their own messages along with received ones to this channel again as I described in the question body. (he never mentions hotspot, Wifi direct, and etc.) He even told me that the only thing I need to do was to think simpler and use the properties of 802.11. But, I do not think it is that easy to set up such a wireless system, at least for Android where ad hoc systems are not supported yet. So any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Best Answer

The Nearby Connections API in Google Play Services released last week uses WiFi multicast: https://developers.google.com/games/services/android/nearby

It works for devices already on the same WiFi network. However, it uses a host/clients model, and doesn't work with WiFi direct or a tethered hotspot connection.

You could also use the WiFi direct APIs from ICS: https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/connectivity/wifip2p.html You can have multiple devices connected together via WiFi direct, so firing UDP packets as @willis suggests would seem the way to go

Related Solutions

Android – How to pass data between Activities in Android application

In your current Activity, create a new Intent:

String value="Hello world";
Intent i = new Intent(CurrentActivity.this, NewActivity.class);    
i.putExtra("key",value);
startActivity(i);

Then in the new Activity, retrieve those values:

Bundle extras = getIntent().getExtras();
if (extras != null) {
    String value = extras.getString("key");
    //The key argument here must match that used in the other activity
}

Use this technique to pass variables from one Activity to the other.

Android – Getting wifi broadcast address in Android wifi hotspot

First you can check what is your IP address :

public InetAddress getIpAddress() {
  InetAddress inetAddress = null;
  InetAddress myAddr = null;

  try {
    for (Enumeration<NetworkInterface> networkInterface = NetworkInterface
      .getNetworkInterfaces(); networkInterface.hasMoreElements();) {

      NetworkInterface singleInterface = networkInterface.nextElement();

      for (Enumeration<InetAddress> IpAddresses = singleInterface.getInetAddresses(); IpAddresses
        .hasMoreElements();) {
        inetAddress = IpAddresses.nextElement();

        if (!inetAddress.isLoopbackAddress() && (singleInterface.getDisplayName()
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            singleInterface.getDisplayName().contains("eth0") ||
            singleInterface.getDisplayName().contains("ap0"))) {

          myAddr = inetAddress;
        }
      }
    }

  } catch (SocketException ex) {
    Log.e(TAG, ex.toString());
  }
  return myAddr;
}

and I used this IP to get Broadcast this way:

public InetAddress getBroadcast(InetAddress inetAddr) {

    NetworkInterface temp;
    InetAddress iAddr = null;
    try {
        temp = NetworkInterface.getByInetAddress(inetAddr);
        List<InterfaceAddress> addresses = temp.getInterfaceAddresses();

        for (InterfaceAddress inetAddress: addresses)

            iAddr = inetAddress.getBroadcast();
        Log.d(TAG, "iAddr=" + iAddr);
        return iAddr;

    } catch (SocketException e) {

        e.printStackTrace();
        Log.d(TAG, "getBroadcast" + e.getMessage());
    }
    return null;
}

It can be done of course in one method, but in my implementation separating it into two method was useful.

To identify if Wifi Tether is on you can use this code:

WifiManager wifi = (WifiManager) getSystemService(Context.WIFI_SERVICE);
Method[] wmMethods = wifi.getClass().getDeclaredMethods();
for (Method method: wmMethods) {
    if (method.getName().equals("isWifiApEnabled")) {

        try {
            if ((Boolean) method.invoke(wifi)) {
                isInetConnOn = true;
                iNetMode = 2;

            } else {
                Log.d(TAG, "WifiTether off");
            }
        } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (InvocationTargetException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

    }
}

If client devices needs to know if server device is mobile Hotspot, specific IP address can be used. As far as I know, all Tethering devices have the same address 192.168.43.1 It is the same on Android 2.3 and on 4.+, Checked on many phones and tablets. Of course it is not best solution but it is fast. In my application client devices checks (sends packet to this address) and my server devices response in predefined way like "yesIamInTheterModeIamYourServer".

Best Answer

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Android – How to pass data between Activities in Android application

Android – Getting wifi broadcast address in Android wifi hotspot

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