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One Billion Apples’ Secret Sauce: Recipe for Apple Wireless Direct Link Protocol

arxiv.org

11–20 of 45 posts

Re: One Billion Apples’ Secret Sauce: Recipe for Apple Wireless Direct Link Protocol

#11

Still waiting on an AirDrop client for non-Apple products. It works really well and is pretty convenient. Maybe this paper will help.

I've had the opposite experience with air drop... It's never worked for me even with a fair amount of tinkering. I end up just running an ssh server and scping stuff around...

Re: One Billion Apples’ Secret Sauce: Recipe for Apple Wireless Direct Link Protocol

#12
post #11

Still waiting on an AirDrop client for non-Apple products. It works really well and is pretty convenient. Maybe this paper will help.

I've had the opposite experience with air drop... It's never worked for me even with a fair amount of tinkering. I end up just running an ssh server and scping stuff around...

Never really had an issue with it, even use it to send my details to others for contacts. Faster than handing phones around, and people then start sending me "happy birthday" texts as my contact info has that junk in it.

Re: One Billion Apples’ Secret Sauce: Recipe for Apple Wireless Direct Link Protocol

#14
post #7

Still waiting on an AirDrop client for non-Apple products. It works really well and is pretty convenient. Maybe this paper will help.

It really is just one of those things that works so well. I was traveling recently and met some folks at a hostel. At the end of the trip we wanted to share our photos and videos with each other. Our hostel's internet connection consisted of a weak wifi access point, connected to weak satellite internet, with dozens of people vying with each other for the available bandwidth. One of us suggested AirDrop and we sent d…

I do wonder if there are patents on this, and if that has prevented other devices from adopting this kind of protocol?

WiFi has always had AdHoc mode which enables two devices to directly communicate like they were on the same Ethernet link, and I've used it a few times for a similar use-case to yours. It seems AirDrop is just a layer on top of that which facilitates the configuration required, but otherwise it would probably not be too difficult to "roll your own" similar app.

Re: One Billion Apples’ Secret Sauce: Recipe for Apple Wireless Direct Link Protocol

#15
One neat application is sharing WiFi passwords— I was recently at a friends place and when I went to sign in to their home WiFi on my iPhone I believe they got a pop up on their phone saying “share password with xyz’s iPhone?” And the whole thing was super seamless, with no need for them to look it up and no need for me to type it in.

Re: One Billion Apples’ Secret Sauce: Recipe for Apple Wireless Direct Link Protocol

#17

One neat application is sharing WiFi passwords— I was recently at a friends place and when I went to sign in to their home WiFi on my iPhone I believe they got a pop up on their phone saying “share password with xyz’s iPhone?” And the whole thing was super seamless, with no need for them to look it up and no need for me to type it in.

so in the future - you can "war pop-up" random wifi's owners - by simply attempting to connect to the wifi and forcing a pop-up that says "Share wifi password with 'Save 15% of Geico's iPhone?"

Re: One Billion Apples’ Secret Sauce: Recipe for Apple Wireless Direct Link Protocol

#18
"We have found that AWDL connections do not feature any security mechanism. All action and data frames are sent in plain and without authentication. AWDL delegates security functions to the transport and application layer, e. g., AirDrop uses TLS 1.2. The approach appears to be an informed decision to implement application dependant[sic] policies: a device might be trusted for sending an image file via AirDrop, but not for remote-controlling a Keynote presentation."

Re: One Billion Apples’ Secret Sauce: Recipe for Apple Wireless Direct Link Protocol

#19

One neat application is sharing WiFi passwords— I was recently at a friends place and when I went to sign in to their home WiFi on my iPhone I believe they got a pop up on their phone saying “share password with xyz’s iPhone?” And the whole thing was super seamless, with no need for them to look it up and no need for me to type it in.

so in the future - you can "war pop-up" random wifi's owners - by simply attempting to connect to the wifi and forcing a pop-up that says "Share wifi password with 'Save 15% of Geico's iPhone?"

No. It only works when you have each other within your Contacts list.

https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/share-your-wifi-password-wi...

Re: One Billion Apples’ Secret Sauce: Recipe for Apple Wireless Direct Link Protocol

#20
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really is just one of those things that works so well. I was traveling recently and met some folks at a hostel. At the end of the trip we wanted to share our photos and videos with each other. Our hostel's internet connection consisted of a weak wifi access point, connected to weak satellite internet, with dozens of people vying with each other for the available bandwidth. One of us suggested AirDrop and we sent d…

I do wonder if there are patents on this, and if that has prevented other devices from adopting this kind of protocol? WiFi has always had AdHoc mode which enables two devices to directly communicate like they were on the same Ethernet link, and I've used it a few times for a similar use-case to yours. It seems AirDrop is just a layer on top of that which facilitates the configuration required, but otherwise it would…

Doesn't Ad hoc force you to disconnect from your current Access Point? I'm under the impression that this is not the case with Air Drop.
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