Wi-Fi proiximity as a service

Wi-Fi proximity as a
Service
A new approach for distributing
hyper-local data

Dmitry Namiot Lomonosov Moscow State University
dnamiot@gmail.com

Manfred Sneps-Sneppe Ventspils University College
manfreds.sneps@gmail.com

SMART 2012

About
• A new model for distributing hyper-local data for mobile
subscribers based on Wi-Fi proximity ideas

• Any existing or even especially created Wi-Fi hot spot could
be used as presence sensor that can open (discover) access
for some user-generated content.

• We can discover hyper local data as info snippets that are
valid (relevant) for mobile subscribers being at this moment
nearby some Wi-Fi access point.

• Possible use-cases for this application: proximity marketing
in malls and office centers (campuses), distributing data in
Smart City projects
Dmitry Namiot http://servletsuite.blogspot.com

Contents

Introduction

Related Work

Spot Expert (SpotEx)

Future development

Conclusion


Introduction

The common definitions:
• Context - location, identities of nearby people and objects,
and changes to those objects.

• Context awareness is defined as complementary element to
location awareness. Anything we can add to location

• Pervasive computing - deal with linking changes in the
environment with computer systems, which are otherwise
static.


Context-aware
Adopt a context-aware perspective to manage:

c) communication among users and among
systems, or between the system and the user,

b) situation-awareness, like modeling location and
environment aspects (physical situation) or the
current user activity (personal situation)

c) knowledge chunks: determining the set of
situation-relevant information, services or behaviors

Wi-Fi related applications


Location and LBS

• Do we really need location in all LBS? In the most
cases location is just an intermediate stage. It is a key
used in requests for geo-database

• The target in the most cases is geo-data. Context
aware information is the true goal for LBS
applications (for most of them)


Location and LBS
• What if we provide context aware data
directly, without the location?
• Here comes the proximity: “if you are
close (near) to some point then …”
• The main advantage – no upfront scene
preparation
• Dynamic LBS


Proximity projects
Some existing projects:

• AllJoyn
• Nokia Instant Community
• ShopKick
• LocalSocial
• AROUND

Technologies for proximity: Bluetooth, NFC, Wi-Fi,
acoustic


ShopKick
• Acoustic technologies
• Proximity rules
• Local offers


Spot Expert (SpotEx)

• Let us keep from the traditional indoor
positioning schema the first stage only: detection
of Wi-Fi networks?

• This detection actually already provides some
information about the location – just due to local
nature of Wi-Fi network.
And as the second step we add the ability to
describe some rules (if-then operators, or
productions) related to the Wi-Fi access points.

SpotEx foundation
• Our rules will simply use the fact that the particularly
Wi-Fi network is detected. And based on this
conclusion we will open (read – make them visible)
some user-defined messages to mobile terminals.

• Actually it is a typical example for the context
aware computing. The visibility for user-defined
text (content) depends on the network context.

• This approach uses Wi-Fi proximity. Any Wi-Fi hot
spot works here just as presence sensor.

SpotEx components

• database (store) with productions (rules) associated
with Wi-Fi networks

• rule editor. Web application (including mobile web)
that lets users add (edit) rule-set, associated with
some Wi-Fi network

• mobile applications, that can detect Wi-Fi networks,
check the current conditions against the database
and execute productions

SpotEx – how does it work
• We can take any existing Wi-Fi network
(or networks especially created for this service – the
most interesting case) and add some rules (messages)
to that network.
Message here is just some text that should be
delivered to the end-user’s mobile terminal as soon
as the above-mentioned network is getting detected
via our mobile application.

• The word “delivered” here is a synonym for “available
for reading/downloading”.

SpotEx – use cases

The possible use cases:
• Some shop can deliver deals/discount/coupons right
to mobile terminals as soon as the user is near some
predefined point of sale. Proximity marketing.

We can describe this feature as “automatic check-in”
for example. Rather than directly (manually or via
some API) set own presence at some place (e.g.
similar to Foursquare, Facebook Places etc.)
with SpotEx mobile users can pull data automatically
and anonymously. Dmitry Namiot http://servletsuite.blogspot.com


• Campus admin can deliver news and special
announces

• Hyper local news in Smart City projects could be tight
(linked) to the public available networks and delivered
information via that channel etc.

• The most interesting (by our opinion, of course) use
case: Wi-Fi hot spot being opened right on the mobile
phone


• Open Wi-Fi Access
Point right in the
mobile
• Add (link) proximity
rules for this access
point exactly
• Rules will define data
chunks (info snippets)
visible for users
nearby this phone


SpotEx – security issues
• Our approach does not touch security and
connectivity issues.

• You do not need to connect mobile subscribers to
your hot spot.

• SpotEx is all about using hot spot attributes for
triggers that can discover the content.

• SpotEx threats Wi-Fi hot spots just as sensors.

SpotEx productions

Each rule looks like a production (if-then operator).
The conditional part includes the following objects:

Wi-Fi network identity,
signal strength (optionally),
time of the day (optionally),
client ID (MAC-address)
history of visits


SpotEx productions

In other words it is a set of operators like:

IF network_SSID IS ‘mycafe’ AND
time is 1pm – 2pm THEN
{ present the coupon for lunch }

It is like production based expert system.
We can use well known algorithm for the
Processing, e.g., Rete

Implementation

• Based on Android OS.
• WiFiManager from Android SDK:

SSID - the network name.
BSSID - the address of the access point.
capabilities - describes the authentication,
key management, and encryption schemes
supported by the access point.
frequency - the frequency in MHz of the channel
level - the detected signal level in dBm.

Implementation
• IF network_SSID IS ‘mycafe’ AND level > -60db
AND time is 1pm – 2pm AND network_SSID
‘myStore’ is not visible THEN {present the deals
for dinner}

• {present the deals for dinner} is some data
(information) snippet presented in the rule. Each
snippet has got a title (text) and some HTML
content (or a link to external site for example).
Snippets are presenting coupons/discounts info
for malls, news data for campuses etc.

Client’s application

• Client-side application
• Shows visible
networks
• Shows working rules
(conclusions)


Context-aware browsing
• Conclusion for rules present set of context-aware
data

• De-facto users are browsing context-aware data
chunks

• Each data chunk is presented a a mobile web page
(SpotEx creates web pages automatically when you
set new rule)

• SpotEx is actually context-aware browser

Wi-Fi chat

• Hyper-local
communication tool
based on SpotEx
• Web chat and
communication forum
for the mobile users
nearby the same Wi-
Fi access point


Proximity & Big Data
• Global UUID for
anonymous clients:
MAC-address
• We can collect stats
associated with
context (Wi-Fi access
ponts)
• Example: clicks vs.
visits


Future development
• Markup for rules – e.g. describe context-aware data
right in HTML. Custom defined attributes in HTML5
defines conditions.

• Native context-aware browser: web intents

• Bluetooth support

• Wi-Fi direct support


Conclusion
• a new context-aware browsing model for mobile
users based on the ideas of Wi-Fi proximity.
• can use any existing as well as the especially
created (described) Wi-Fi network as presence
trigger for discovering user-defined content
• completely software based and does not require the
upfront space preparations.
• supports ad-hoc solutions
• could be used for delivering commercial information
in malls, distributing data in Smart City projects,
sharing news feeds for office centers and campuses

About us
International team: Russia - Latvia (Moscow –
Riga – Ventspils). Big history of developing
innovative telecom and software services,
international contests awards

Projects examples we are in:
open API for telecom,
web access for telecom data,
mobile web applications,
M2M applications, context-aware computing.


Wi-Fi proiximity as a service

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