Many-to-many invocation: A New framework for building collaborative applications in ad hoc networks

Hans-Peter Bischof
Alan Kaminsky

Note: imported from RIT’s Digital Media Library running on DSpace to RIT Scholar Works in October 2013.

Abstract

Many-to-Many Invocation (M2MI) is a new paradigm for building collaborative systems that run in wireless proximal ad hoc networks of fixed and mobile computing devices. M2MI is useful for building a broad range of systems, including service discovery frameworks; groupware for mobile ad hoc collaboration; systems involving networked devices (printers, cameras, sensors); and collaborative middleware systems. M2MI provides an object oriented method call abstraction based on broadcasting. An M2MI invocation means ``Every object out there that implements this interface, call this method.''. M2MI is layered on top of a new messaging protocol, the Many-to-Many Protocol (M2MP), which broadcasts messages to all nearby devices using the wireless network's inherent broadcast nature instead of routing messages from device to device. In an M2MI-based system, central servers are not required; network administration is not required; complicated, resource-consuming ad hoc routing protocols are not required; and system development and deployment are simplified.