Soad: An Application for Peer to Peer Web Communication Between Users in a Network

Abstract

Web technology has emerged as effective tool for communication, socialization, e-commerce, e-government, research, mass awareness and information sharing. With advancement in technology such as Wi-Fi many people access this technology. Today, many places have Wi-Fi network, but people haven’t fully exploited it due to cost and limited connectivity. It is possible to scan a Wi-Fi network and discover no connection on it. There is thus a need for developing a system that allows free and secure communication between users without interfering with current networking protocols and allowing for interoperability, interactivity and usability between users. The paper presents the SoAd application as a proof of concept in implementing such a system. SoAd was developed using java which is platform independent and supported by many operating systems including mobiles such as AndroidTM. Java.net class is a rich networking tool for socket and URL communication in local and internet networks. SoAd emulates a server as a client and allows communication between users in the network using java sockets. The idea is to allow users communicate without a centralized server when in a network and delivery of information as web contents. This application suits e-commerce and socialization among many others.