Communicating with Bluetooth, NFC, and Wi‐Fi Peer‐to‐Peer
Reto Meier, Ian Lake · 2018
This chapter explores Android's hardware communications features by examining the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi peer-to-peer (P2P), near field communication (NFC), and Android Beam application program interfaces (APIs). The Android software development kit (SDK) includes a full Bluetooth stack, which enables the users to manage and monitor their Bluetooth settings, control discoverability, discover nearby Bluetooth devices, and use. Wi-Fi P2P is designed for medium-range, high-bandwidth P2P communications via Wi-Fi without an intermediate access point. Compared to Bluetooth, Wi-Fi P2P is faster, more reliable, and works over greater distances. NFC is a contactless technology used to transmit small amounts of data across very short distances (typically less than 4 centimeters). NFC transfers can occur between two NFC-enabled devices, or between a device and an NFC “tag”�. Android Beam provides a simple API for an application to transmit data between two Android devices using NFC, simply by placing them back-to-back.