Wi-Fi Aware^TM (NAN)

[中文]

Wi-Fi Aware^TM or NAN (Neighbor Awareness Networking) is a protocol that allows Wi-Fi devices to discover services in their proximity. Typically, location-based services are based on querying servers for information about the environment and the location knowledge is based on GPS or other location reckoning techniques. However, NAN does not require real-time connection to servers, GPS or other geo-location, but instead uses direct device-to-device Wi-Fi to discover and exchange information. NAN scales effectively in dense Wi-Fi environments and complements the connectivity of Wi-Fi by providing information about people and services in the proximity.

Multiple NAN devices which are in the vicinity form a NAN cluster which allows them to communicate with each other. Devices within a NAN cluster can advertise (Publish method) or look for (Subscribe method) services using NAN Service Discovery protocols. Matching of services is done by service name, once a match is found, a device can either send a message or establish an IPv6 Datapath with the peer.

ESP32 supports Wi-Fi Aware in standalone mode with support for both Service Discovery and Datapath. Wi-Fi Aware is still an evolving protocol. Please refer to Wi-Fi Alliance's official page on Wi-Fi Aware for more information. Many Android smartphones with Android 8 or higher support Wi-Fi Aware. Refer to Android's developer guide on Wi-Fi Aware Wi-Fi Aware for more information.

Application Examples

• wifi/wifi_aware/nan_console demonstrates how to use the NAN protocol to discover services in proximity, establish a datapath, and communicate between devices without requiring an Internet or AP connection. It provides console commands for configuring NAN services, publishing or subscribing to a service, sending messages, and initiating or terminating a datapath.

• wifi/wifi_aware/nan_publisher demonstrates how to use the NAN protocol to publish a service for advertising a service to other devices in the vicinity, and how to respond to the devices that subscribes to the service.

• wifi/wifi_aware/nan_subscriber demonstrates how to use the NAN protocol to discover other devices that publishes the required service in the proximity, and communicate with them either by sending a message or initiating a datapath.

• wifi/wifi_aware/usd_publisher demonstrates how to use lightweight NAN Unsynchronized Service Discovery (NAN-USD) to advertise a service to nearby devices without forming NAN clusters. It walks through bringing up USD, publishing a service, responding to subscribers with follow-up messages, and returning to the idle state once discovery completes.

• wifi/wifi_aware/usd_subscriber demonstrates how to use the lightweight NAN Unsynchronized Service Discovery (NAN-USD) protocol to discover services advertised by nearby devices and interact with them. It covers enabling USD discovery, subscribing to services, handling follow-up exchanges, and terminating discovery after the session ends.

API Reference

Header File

• components/esp_wifi/wifi_apps/nan_app/include/esp_nan.h

• This header file can be included with:

  #include "esp_nan.h"
  

• This header file is a part of the API provided by the esp_wifi component. To declare that your component depends on esp_wifi, add the following to your CMakeLists.txt:

  REQUIRES esp_wifi
  

  or

  PRIV_REQUIRES esp_wifi
  

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