Hocman (Figure 1) is implemented in C/C++ and is working on devices running the Pocket PC operating system. We have made it work on two sets of devices: Compaq Ipaqs 3660, equipped with a Lucent Orinoco WLAN card; and Symbol PPT 2700 with a built-in Spectrum24 WLAN card. The network cards are configured to communicate in IEEE 802.11 IBSS mode.

Figure 1. Screenshots of Hocman. The browser-window (left), bikers within wireless range (middle), and the log (left).

Hocman forms a simple yet effective peer-to-peer application platform by combining three parallel entities: a HTTP server, a HTTP client and a simple discovery protocol. The server implements limited HTTP 1.0 functionality and maps incoming GET commands to the local file structure. In order to support basic user driven surfing activities, such as following links, reloading and retrieving documents, the client renders HTML and issues HTTP commands. In order for the the devices to quickly discover each other we have invented the Rapid Mutual Peer Discovery Algorithm. It also dispatches automatic downloads in cruise mode.

Source code for Pocket PC 2002
Download code and MS EVC project (version 1.0) (5610 kB)