Ad Hoc Networking – Anywhere Computing with Laptops: Making Mobile Easier [Book]

Ad Hoc Networking

Ad hoc networking means that each computer talks to each other directly without the “supervision” of a device such as a router. This arrangement is sometimes called peer-to-peer networking. In wireless networking, a strength (and sometimes weakness) of ad hoc networking is that nodes on the network (meaning computers) can join (or leave) the network on-the-fly. So you don’t necessarily know the number of computers on a wireless network.

Figure 14.1 shows an example of an ad hoc network that uses wireless networking.

Figure 14.1. An ad hoc wireless network.

If enough computers are involved, an ad hoc, or peer-to-peer network, …