Abstract

Ad Hoc Networking

Abstract:

An ad hoc network is a temporary connection between computers and devices used for a specific purpose, such as sharing documents during a meeting or playing multiplayer computer games. You can also temporarily share an Internet connection with other people on your ad hoc network, so those people don’t have to set up their own Internet connections. Ad hoc networks can only be wireless, so you must have a wireless network adapter installed in your computer to set up or join an ad hoc network. Ad Hoc" is actually a Latin phrase that means "for this purpose." It is often used to describe solutions that are developed on-the-fly for a specific purpose. In computer networking, an ad hoc network refers to a network connection established for a single session and does not require a router or a wireless base. For example, if you need to transfer a file to your friend's laptop, you might create an ad hoc network between your computer and his laptop to transfer the file. This may be done using an Ethernet crossover cable, or the computers' wireless cards to communicate with each other. If you need to share files with more than one computer, you could set up a mutli-hop ad hoc network, which can transfer data over multiple nodes.

Basically, an ad hoc network is a temporary network connection created for a specific purpose (such as transferring data from one computer to another). If the network is set up for a longer period of time, it is just a plain old local area network (LAN).Ad hoc networks are to computing devices what Yahoo Personals are to single people: both help individuals communicate productively with strangers while maintaining security. Under the rules of ad hoc networking--which continue to evolve--your mobile phone can, when placed in proximity to your handheld address book, establish a little network on its own and enable data sharing between the two devices. In Ad Hoc Networking, Charles Perkins has compiled...