Providing more info about an access point

Brad Ideas: 802.11 broadcast of local info. This article talks about a lower level than I usually deal with here, but there are some interesting thoughts in it about how an access point could broadcast more detailed information about itself.

All this happens because most access points transmit a regular "beacon" packet which lists their SSID and other information needed to connect to them. Seeing that the SSIDs were sometimes interesting, I wondered if we might do much more with a special beacon.

This beacon would deliberately tell you a bit about the access or location. It would contain a mixed XML/HTML packet with a variety of useful fields and general text. ... Access points would also talk about themselves, declaring, for example, if the owner is offering open internet access for free or for fee, or has a local database of information, and what classes of information are in the main text. The local lattitude and longitude for those without a GPS could be useful, along with local maps data in a compact form.

Perhaps they could also provide hints such as, "quiet area: devices should switch to vibrate mode here."

The article also talks about how mobile clients might be able to grab data from an access point without having to fully associate with it. If you've used a mobile device with WiFi, you know it takes a few seconds to establish a usable connection--and that's assuming the network doesn't force you to go through some login or registration procedure. From a usability point of view, it's far from ideal. Of course, a bigger problem in many cases is figuring out which of the 10 visible access points will be able to provide a usable internet connection.

Comments (RSS)

hi,
i need to find the location of the PDA using the access points.i have downloaded the appropraite code from the herecast.could u please tell me how use this code for my application.thank u..very much.

vamsi - Apr 1 2005, 1:22 AM

I have answered this question in your comment on this article:
http://www.herecast.com/articles/20040428

Mark - Apr 6 2005, 2:35 PM

sir,
i cant open the src->vcw workspace in order to run it on pocket pc.sir,what would be the problem.is that what i have downloaded is wrong.eagerly waiting for u reply.

vamsi - Apr 15 2005, 4:40 AM

I've sent you some additional instructions by email. Has anyone else had success opening the project files in eVC? I heard from one person who had to re-create the project files. I'll see if I can test them on another machine, and update the CVS version if necessary.

Mark - Apr 25 2005, 4:08 PM