Subject: applications for ad hoc networks

From: Dmitri Deshun Perkins <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 12 May 2000 14:11:09 -0400 (EDT)

Hello:

I have read many of the papers concerning routing in ad hoc networks
and am very interested in this area of research. However, I am finding
some difficulty in determining exactly which applications(or environments)
could take advantage of ad hoc networks. Much of the literature discusses 
the usefulness of ad hoc networks in military or disaster environments.

Can anyone comment on the usefulness(or applicability) of ad hoc networks 
in specific environments other than those mentioned above? If there are 
articles that discuss these issues, please point me to them.

Thanks for your time,
Perkins

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From: Phil Neumiller <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 16:15:57 -0500

> the usefulness of ad hoc networks in military or disaster environments.

Consider the office environment.  Printers, fax machines, PCs, whiteboards,
etc, will all be PAN-enabled in the future.  PAN => wire replacement, ad-hoc,
networking, nomadic computing, etc.  If you walk into your office with a bunch
of WPAN devices they should all start doing some kind of service discovery.

Then, calendars will synch up, Email will synch up, documents will print, etc.

Consider yourself entering a meeting.  Everybody can project their PDA or
PC into a piece of the PAN-enabled whiteboard (possibly overlapping).

> articles that discuss these issues, please point me to them.

See http://www.motorola.com/bluetooth/action/index.html for some more ideas.
NOTE: These are bluetooth specific but any WPAN with manet should be able
to enact these use-cases.

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From: Gergely Zaruba <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 17:31:40 -0500

Hi Phil,

What you have described is an ad hoc network although it is not necessary a
multi-hop network... In a military scenario we usually mean multi-hop when talking
about ad hoc. IMHO most of the proposed routing protocols deal with multi-hop ad
hoc networks.
The office scenario can be solved more efficiently with placing wireless "base
stations" (this BSs can be the whiteboard, or LAN interfaces, etc.), thus allowing
"nomadicity" but it does not require the "multi-hop feature".

Best regards,

Gergely Zaruba

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From: Raymond Wang <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 18:26:49 -0700

Hi Gergely,

But with base stations (centralized infrastructure), the network is no 
longer "ad hoc"...

Raymond Wang

> > to enact these use-cases.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Raymond Wang
Department of Electrical Engineering
Stanford University

www.stanford.edu/~rayw

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 10:43:59 +0200

I think that ad-hoc networking has the opportunity to establish itself as
the easiest way to install and use wireless LANs, indoor or outdoor. No
need of frequency mapping or base stations placement or other optimized
infrastructure. May be an analogy is possible with old Ethernet which was
easier to install and manage than Token Ring...

Philippe