Next Generation Wireless Applications: Creating Mobile Applications in a Web 2.0 and Mobile 2.0 World, 2nd Edition

7.8 PEER-TO-PEER (P2P)

P2P is a new and exciting area of computing and due to its infancy, clearly established protocols have yet to emerge that are as firmly established as HTTP is for the Web. P2P is not that widespread anyhow, so there has not really been a chance for a set of protocols to emerge, but one of the efforts that is attracting a lot of interest is the JXTA project, which we shall discuss shortly.

7.8.1 Defining P2P

We have already introduced P2P in the early chapters of this book, so it seems a bit late to be defining it now, but it is an interesting topic nonetheless. We can dispense with some of the more meaty academic discussions that might surround this topic and concentrate on P2P in the mobile context, which is after all where our interest should lie; although, we should always have in mind that mobile-to-fixed communication can still take place in P2P mode. The philosophical origins of P2P don't quite fit the mobile context anyhow. There is a thought process that taking into account the increasing prevalence of broadband connectivity and the equally widespread availability of massively powerful desktop computing concludes that reliance on centralised processing might be outdated, or unnecessary in some cases. Not in all cases, but certainly some. With mobile networks, the same abundance of resources does not exist, although under certain conditions it could approach certain wire-line configurations, such as a powerful laptop networked via WiFi.

The key concept ...