WiFi Direct with Photon

Is it possible to connect two photons directly with each other (WiFi Direct)? I know there are similar posts but I haven’t found a definite answer to this question. It’s my understanding that the wifi chip on the photon is capable of WiFi Direct. It will be pretty cool if this is possible! :relaxed:

Thanks!

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I guess that’s possible since a Photon can setup a SoftAP and the other can connect :wink:

Yes, it’s technically possible to support WiFi direct (including using WPS to configure the network) and we will be adding this to the list of supported features soon!

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@mdma Is there a way to ‘Up Vote’ this feature. I am very eager to exploit this functionality. Can you point me to any relevant material you may have found on how to do this?
Thanks!

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Upvoted! At Particle we are really keen for this feature too, so you won’t have to wait very long.

Our expected direction is to expose the access point functionality as a new library - AP that parallels the existing WiFi functionality. Something like this:

AP.setCredentials(SSID, SecurityType, password);
AP.connect();

That brings up the access point using the given SSID, security type and password.

Then all our networking related APIs will take an additional parameter to describe which network they operate on. E.g.

TCPServer server(80, AP);   <-- creates on the AP network interface
server.begin();
TCPClient client = server.available();
// etc...

To enable WPS connection, the AP.listen() command can be used.

AP.listen();  
// wait up to 30 seconds for a client to connect via WPS

That’s my outline thoughts for now, I hope it helps show the direction we are considering Feedback welcome! :smile:

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@mdma that sounds like a great idea ! you can do that? Awesome !!

My general understanding of creating soft AP's has forced me into thinking that while the photon tries to act like the AP, it wouldn't be able to continue being a Wifi Client(through which it talks to the cloud).
Unless, that's the case, Wifi-Direct would become really useful.

BTW, any estimate on when this library will be available? Is anyone working on this?

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Yeah @mdma, keeping the community updated on this feature would be great! we can plan our projects well in advance :wink: WiFi Direct will take IoT to a whole new level! so excited! :smiley:

My understanding is that we can have both AP and STA (Wifi client) operating at the same time.

No-one is working on this right now - I imagine we will focus on the initial photon release to catch any immediate issues before we turn our attention to this.

@azhamn @zach @mdma Can anyone tell us if this feature will be implemented? Soft AP (and hopefully STA at the same time)? It would be really nice to know if you guys will be working on this and to have an idea when to expect it. Just for us to know if we can wait for it for our projects.
It would really a great feature make it even more better device :wink:

Exposing AP mode is scheduled for this sprint, although after MakerFaire this is a short sprint, so may spill over to the next sprint, which means we should deliver this feature in the next week or two!

The hardest part of the AP/STA modes is testing, since it affects everything that touches networking, so would be great to have help from our wonderful community on that! :smile: Any volunteers?

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@mdma Thank you for the information on the timeline. As soon as I receive my photons (already ordered in January) I would be gladly to help testing with these

@mdma I can volunteer to test this feature. I have spent 2 years in automated testing at workplace. I could definitely share a few ideas if need be. Otherwise, I am happy to run any tests you may provide. I already have a photon in possession. Thanks !

Thanks @hmehta! I’m going to implement the AP mode today/tomorrow. Feel free to chime in with any testing suggestions!

@mdma Will the Photon be able to use wps and if it does will it have rate limiting? Is the Photon venerable to the pixie dusk attack?

WPS for clients was on the list of features, since this is provided by the underlying WICED library. I’ve not used it or studied the code, so I’ve presently little knowledge of what vulnerabilities the WICED implementation has, or countermeasures that it takes.

If you know of tools that can try to compromise WPS protected routers, I’d like to hear which ones you recommend.

I have made my own version of reaver to crack wps in about 10-15 seconds on a Raspberry Pi running Kali Linux using the pixie dusk attack. Though this only works on router that are venerable. I think reaver has this attack built in now but I am not sure. I did this about 3 years ago but I am not sure if the pixie dusk attack relies on a hardware venerability or software venerability. I did do this three years ago so I don’t remember the specifics of what I did. If it is a hardware venerability it would be next to impossible to fix.

Somebody here was talking about a faraday cage. Could I use a anti static bag as a faraday cage? I am talking about the dark grayish bags not the pink ones. Speaking of anti static bags why does the photon come in a box with black foam which looks amazing but that foam will build up static electricity and that could kill my precious Photon.

That is conductive foam used for shipping ICs safely. No worries.

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I have never seen black conductive foam! I am glade to know that because it means Particle spent the time and some money to protect there amazing products. Thanks Particle! :smiley:

Hi, any updates on the WiFi Direct library? If it is ready, where can I find it?

Thx, Dominik