Seamless Group Reformation in WiFi Peer to Peer Network using Dormant Backend Links

WiFi Peer to Peer (P2P) aka WiFi Direct enables devices to communicate with each other in a peer to peer manner without requiring any Access Point at typical WiFi speed with WPA2 security. With its huge prospect in revolutionizing device to device communication, WiFi P2P can potentially play a much larger role amid the growing interest in M2M communication and Internet of Things. However, unlike a conventional P2P network which operates on mesh topology, WiFi P2P requires one of its group members to act as Group Owner, with whom all the other devices in the group stay associated. The group suffers from a temporary network disruption when the Group Owner suddenly leaves the group without any prior notice. In addition, restoration of the group connectivity consumes much time which is intolerable for most delay sensitive applications. In this paper, we address this issue using our proposed concept of Seamless Group Reformation which helps in maintaining near continuous connectivity and alleviates overdependence of the group on the Group Owner. The concept is seconded by the proposed mechanism of Dormant Backend Links to cut down the total group-disruption time. We implement the mechanism of Dormant Backend Links on a practical WiFi P2P testbed and present an experimental evaluation.