Next Generation Wireless Applications: Creating Mobile Applications in a Web 2.0 and Mobile 2.0 World, 2nd Edition

5.6 SIDESTEPPING THE WEB WITH P2P INTERACTION

Thus far, in our discussion, we have assumed that the databases we are trying to access are not local to the devices, but are hosted on database servers in the content network, accessible via the IP network, using intervening web servers somewhere on the Internet. In our high-level network model developed in Chapter 3, these network entities (servers) are situated in the content layer of the network (see Figure 5.12). The HTTP connection has been operating over the IP layer, and is going to become our dominant focus when we scrutinise this layer in more depth throughout the book, especially in Chapter 7.

As Figure 5.12 shows, P2P interaction does not appear to directly involve the content network. In all probability, the information sets that we want to access in P2P mode are on the devices themselves, and not on database servers in the content network. We can still think of the information as sitting in databases, but these are device-bound and will be unlike the powerful database servers in the content network. It is tempting to think of the P2P mode as a bit like folding up the content network into the devices themselves, but this denies the entirely different characteristics of a P2P architecture compared to CS interaction.

With mobile P2P applications, the content itself will almost certainly be restricted to certain types and forms. Users will share files, such as ringtones (see sidebar ‘Ringtone files’), MP3 files, pictures and ...