What is WiFi Aware?

WiFi is a revolutionary technology that changed our world as we know it today. It is a technology that uses radio waves to provide high speed network and internet connectivity. WiFi Aware is an upcoming upgrade for our current Wireless Communication Protocols which may be the next revolutionary step in the Wireless Networking Technology.

What is WiFi Aware?

WiFi Aware is a hot topic in wireless networking research in major companies around the world. WiFi Aware enabled devices will be able to detect and constantly send and receive messages with each other using wireless networks before making a connection. These communication is done using internal WiFi networks, so no mobile data or Internet bandwidth will be used.

How Does it Work?

There are mainly 3 modes of operation for a WiFi Aware Enabled Device

• Publisher Mode
• Subscriber Mode
• Dual Mode

The Publisher Device is a transmitting device which is constantly broadcasting a message. The Subscriber Device persistently searches for Publisher Device and when found, receives the message. The devices in dual mode can act as a publisher as well as a subscriber.

Where do we use WiFi Aware?

Imagine that you are in a concert and people in the first row are taking photos. Lets say you want those photos. If people in the front set their mobile in publisher mode, and your phone in subscriber mode, you can easily receive those photos without even connecting to their devices.

WiFi Aware can make a significant change in the field of IOT (Internet Of Things), where the sensors and other devices are persistently exchanging data in a wireless network. The Sucess of an IOT system depends on how fast, the devices collects, process and exchange data. WiFi Aware continuously send and receive data to all devices at proximity at a very high speed.

Android OS 8.0 and WiFi Aware

The latest version of android, the Oreo, this feature is enabled in specific applications, such as camera apps, that has the ability to send pictures that we take to the subscribers without connecting to their devices and without using cellular data or Internet Traffic.

Currently there are only few apps that supports this feature. But this feature will allow developers to create more creative apps that just to share photos.