P3P: Peer-to-peer + mobile peer: API for developing P2P applications for desktop computers and mobile devices

Peer-to-Peer computing is a computing paradigm wherein computers share both information and resources with each other. Unlike server-based applications, Peer-to-Peer systems treat all nodes equally in that it allows all nodes to host information. Unfortunately, Peer-to-Peer systems are still limited to desktops, and very little support is being given to the addition of mobile devices for such systems to make it more pervasive. Given that these mobile devices are extremely portable and can increase convenience for users over a wide array of applications, it is advantageous if a study is conducted to explore the feasibility of such addition. In particular, a number of issues will have to be addressed in order to ensure that the system can overcome the limitations of such mobile devices. Availability issues will have to be addressed, due to the rather volatile connections mobile devices have, and a wider definition of information defined, since mobile devices can store information aside from typical files. These and other issues, as well as the requirements for developing such a pervasive Peer-to-Peer system, will be discussed in this paper