Wi-Fi Direct

[2] It is useful for things such as file transfer, casting and projecting with Miracast, wireless printing,[3] and to communicate with one or more devices simultaneously at typical Wi-Fi speeds (IEEE 802.11) without requiring a hotspot or an Internet connection.

[6] Conventional Wi-Fi networks are typically based on the presence of controller devices known as wireless access points.

To address those roles, a number of different protocols have developed, including Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), Devices Profile for Web Services (DPWS), and zero-configuration networking (ZeroConf).

The widespread adoption of Wi-Fi in new classes of smaller devices made the need for ad hoc networking much more important.

Although the ad hoc mode was created to address this sort of need, the lack of additional information for discovery makes it difficult to use in practice.

But, the same device would find that streaming music to a computer or printing a file might be difficult, or simply not supported between differing brands of hardware.

Wireless mice, keyboards, remote controls, headsets, speakers, displays, and many other functions can be implemented with Wi-Fi Direct.

When a device enters the range of the Wi-Fi Direct host, it can connect to it, and then gather setup information using a Protected Setup-style transfer.

A smart phone that allows data tethering might run a more complex soft AP that adds the ability to route to the Internet.

[13] Wi-Fi Direct devices can connect to a notebook computer that plays the role of a software Access Point (AP).

[citation needed] Ozmo Devices, which developed integrated circuits (chips) designed for Wi-Fi Direct, was acquired by Atmel in 2012.

[20][21] As of March 2016,[update] no iPhone device implements Wi-Fi Direct; instead, iOS has its own proprietary feature, namely Apple's MultipeerConnectivity.

[22] This protocol and others are used in the feature AirDrop, used for sharing both trivial-sized content like links and contact cards, and large files of any size, between Apple devices without the need for network infrastructure.