Wi-Fi Direct Aiman Tarek

Wi-Fi Direct
Aiman Tarek
Computers and Systems Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Egypt
aiman3tarek@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT
This article illustrates the new specification Wi-Fi Direct, relates it with existing Wi-Fi
standards, discusses Wi-Fi Direct security, contrasts Wi-Fi Direct and ad-hoc, and
compares between Wi-Fi Direct and Bluetooth.

INTRODUCTION
Wi-Fi changed the way we connect to networks and the Internet. Today, Wi-Fi delivers
high-speed WLAN connectivity to more than 223 million homes and 127 million Wi-Fi hotspots
worldwide, and over 97% of laptops ship with Wi-Fi integrated.

Electronic devices of all shapes and sizes are incorporating Wi-Fi:

 MP3 player manufacturers are adding Wi-Fi to enable direct access to online music
shops.
 Digital camera manufacturers are embedding Wi-Fi as a way to compete against camera-
enabled mobile phones.
 Handset manufacturers are adding Wi-Fi to enable VoIP calls and to provide more
bandwidth for new features.
 TV and DVR manufacturers are embedding Wi-Fi as a means to download electronic
program guides and provide direct access to Internet content like YouTube.

CE: Consumer Electronics, PC: Personal Computers

Source: http://www.abiresearch.com/

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Now Wi-Fi Direct a new wireless networking specification, Introduced in 2009 by the Wi-Fi
Alliance as PAN, which will enable devices to establish simple P2P wireless connections without
the need for a wireless router or hotspot.

REVIEW
What’s Wi-Fi Direct?

A set of software protocols that allow Wi-Fi devices to talk and connect to each other without
prior setup or the need for joining a traditional wireless access points.

The majority of Wi-Fi networks are set up in "infrastructure mode", where the access point acts
as a central hub. Wi-Fi has always claimed to support a second mode, "ad-hoc mode", where
networking is automatically provided between Wi-Fi enabled devices, using ad-hoc mode, two
Wi-Fi devices can theoretically set up a connection between them entirely automatically.

A Wi-Fi Direct network can be one-to-one, or one-to-many. The number of devices in a Wi-Fi
Direct network is expected to be smaller than the number supported by traditional standalone
access points intended for consumer use.All Wi-Fi Direct devices will allow the user to connect
to an infrastructure or a Wi-Fi Direct network. Some Wi-Fi Direct devices will support
connections to both an infrastructure network and Wi-Fi Direct network at the same time.

It operates on 802.11 devices but is not linked to any specific IEEE 802.11 amendment; different
from IEEE 802.11s (Mesh) or 802.11z (Direct Link Setup).

Wi-Fi Direct and existing Wi-Fi standards

Wi-Fi Direct device will be able to make device-to-device connections with existing IEEE
802.11 a/b/g/nstandards.

Protocol Release Op. Typ. Net Bit Gross Bit Max Max
Date Frequency Throughput Rate Rate Indoor Outdoor
Range Range
802.11a Oct. 5 GHz 20 Mbit/s 54 Mbit/s 72 Mbit/s 15 m. 30 m.
1999
802.11b Oct. 2.4 GHz 5 Mbit/s 11 Mbit/s ??? 45 m. 90 m.
1999
802.11g Jun. 2.4 GHz 22 Mbit/s 54 Mbit/s 128 45 m. 90 m.
2003 Mbit/s
802.11n Sep. 5/2.4 GHz 144 Mbit/s 600 ??? 70 m. 250 m.
2007 Mbit/s
IEEE 802.11 standards
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11

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Wi-Fi Direct is also designed with backwards compatibility in mind; even an old 802.11b radio
could support it. Whether the support shows up on older products will be up to their operating
systems vendor.But in theory, that doesn't matter. The old products can still connect to other
devices that do support Wi-Fi Direct; the old product will just see the new one as if it was an
AP/router.

Wi-Fi direct security

Wi-Fi Direct connections will work, at typical Wi-Fi ranges, protected by WPAsecurity
protocols and including WMM QoS mechanisms. It supports WPS and WPA2 by default, many
older products still don't, which still even use the old broken WEP encryption.

The new specification places a premium on security; it was developed to have separate security
domains, so your WLAN connection is a separate security domain from your Wi-Fi Direct
network.

Wi-Fi direct and ad-hoc

The ad- hoc networks allow devices to exchange data with each other without an access
point, but implementations almost universally offer poor security and degraded throughput. The
new method, Wi-Fi Direct, is a wholesale replacement of the weak ad-hoc networking mode
that's part of 802.11, but never built out into a standardized part of Wi-Fi, nor put through a
testing and certification program like infrastructure mode has, This can make it difficult or
impossible to use the mode between computers running different OS or even different wireless
networking hardware.

Wi-Fi Direct can also handle quick peer-to-peer sharing as needed. That's the kind of thing the
802.11 ad-Hoc mode has done for years, but never withmuch ease; because Wi-Fi Direct will
include mechanisms for advertising service availability without connecting, e.g. you can’t
connect wireless printers through ad-hoc mode, using Wi-Fi Direct you can.

One advantage of the new method that it can preserve the full bandwidthof 802.11, and overtakes
incompatibility issues that ad-hoc would suffer.

Wi-Fi Direct and Bluetooth

It is said that that “Wi-Fi Direct Could Be the Death of Bluetooth”, While Bluetooth 2.1
reaches a speed of 3 Mbps, and Bluetooth 3.0will reach24 Mbps, Wi-Fi Direct can reach 250
Mbps per second with 802.11n networks, which means Wi-Fi Direct will be 80 times faster than
the common Bluetooth.

Bluetooth is designed with low power consumption but with a short range, approximately 10m in
Class 2 with MPP of 2.5 mW (4 dBm), but Wi-Fi supports higher ranges with much more power
consumption, the next move is to extend wireless power save mode to all Wi-Fi devices.

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Almost all notebooks and PCs are equipped with WLAN cards though it’s not Bluetooth enabled
devices which increases the probability of Wi-Fi Direct domination.

In Bluetooth we have a problem, Changing an encryption key must be done every 23.3 hours
(one Bluetooth day), so the Bluetooth host was required to handle pausing data transfer, with
EPR technique the Bluetooth controller ensures that no unencrypted data is transferred while
they key is refreshed.

CONCLUSION
This article offers a general view about Wi-Fi direct, now it is allowing users to do
everything from syncing data between a smartphone and a laptop to displaying pictures on a flat
screen television or printing them on a wireless printer keyboards, mice, andwould offer longer
distance, faster speedremote controls. Tech experts are expecting that the applications will
extend to industrial applications.What you need to use the new specification is simple driver
software for PC and firmware upgrades for CE devices. Don’t wait for certified CE, only one of
the connecting devices (not both) has to be certified to the new specification.

“Wi-Fi Direct represents a leap forward for Wireless industry. Wi-Fi users worldwide will
benefit from a single-technology solution to transfer content and share applications quickly and
easily among devices”, Wi-Fi Alliance executive director Edgar Figueroa.

REFERENCES
[1] Keith Shaw speech with Kelly Davis-Felner,new Wi-Fi Direct specification, Internet,
NetworkWorld.com, October 2009, 17 min.
http://www.networkworld.com/podcasts/panorama/2009/101409pan-wifidirect.html

[2] Windows Embedded Developer Center,MSDN, August 2008.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa916767.aspx

[3] Wi-Fi Direct, Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Direct

[4] Wi-Fi Direct FAQ, September 2009, Wi-Fi Alliance Press Release.
http://www.wi-fi.org/files/20091019_Wi-Fi_Direct_FAQ.pdf

[5] Lisa Grantham, March 2005, WMM Q&A, Wi-Fi Alliance.

http://www.wi-fi.org/files/kc_8_WMM%20QandA_3-23-05.pdf

[6] Antonio Delgado, December 2009, Wi-Fi Direct, Consumer Eroski. “Spanish”
http://www.consumer.es/web/es/tecnologia/internet/2009/12/17/189408.php

[7] Jeff Goldman, November 2009, A Closer Look at Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Planet.
http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/news/article.php/3848451

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APPENDIX
Abbreviations

AP Access Point
CE Consumer Electronics
EPR Encryption Pause/Resume
Mbps Mega bit per second
MPP Maximum Permitted Power
OS Operating System
P2P Peer-to-Peer
PAN Personal Area Network
PC Personal Computer
WEP Wired Equivalent Privacy
WLAN Wireless Local Area Network
WPA Wi-Fi Protected Access
WPS Wireless Protection Setup
WMM QoS Wi-Fi Multimedia Quality of Service

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I thank Dr. Gamal Ahmed-Roshdy El-Sayed for advice and guidance.
Electrical Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Assiut University, Egypt
gae@aun.edu.eg