Mobile Encounter Networks and Their Applications

This article presents mobile encounter networks (MENs), which emerge when mobile devices come across each other and form a temporary connection between them using a common short-range radio technology. Local information exchanges between mobile devices results in a broadcast diffusion of information to other users of the network with a delay. Gasoline price comparison system (GPCS), which delivers newest gasoline prices to mobile users using mobile encounter information diffusion, is described as well as other application areas where MENs could be used. The feasibility of building MENs using bluetooth is tested with the BlueCheese mobile encounter network middleware and it is found that the bluetooth currently present in mobile phones does not adequately suit as a network technology for MENs.