beagleboard rookier: beagleboard w/ Wi-Fi direct capability?

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1

Hey guys,
First post, hope we’re doing this correctly. We had a couple of
beginner’s question that we wanted to ask, so please bear with us. =)

The project we’re working on is to add Wi-Fi Direct and BT capability
to a DPF (Digital Picture Frame). I know the rev C BB comes with the
capability to connect though LVDS, but it seem like the BT and WiFi
capability are not internal, right? That means will have to add the BT
and WiFi peripherals on top of it?

Is this a better option for us - http://www.embeddedarm.com/products/board-detail.php?product=TS-7552,
we would like to stick with the BeagleBoard since there’s so much work
done by other people and a big support forum but as a sanity check
wanted to see if there some other more fitting option.

The second question is whether there is an off the shelf Wi-Fi Direct
controller board/peripheral is available. We searched around but
couldn’t any places offering it.

Thanks, glad we can join the board, can’t wait to start tinkering
around. :slight_smile:

2

The second question is whether there is an off the shelf Wi-Fi Direct
controller board/peripheral is available. We searched around but
couldn’t any places offering it.

http://focus.ti.com/general/docs/wtbu/wtbuproductcontent.tsp?templateId=6123&navigationId=12859&contentId=67453&DCMP=wtbu_wilink7_2010&HQS=Other+OT+wilink7#chipDiagram

3

Is this a better option for us - TS-7552 250MHz SBC with XNAND Drive, MicroSD, WiFi Option,
we would like to stick with the BeagleBoard since there’s so much work
done by other people and a big support forum but as a sanity check
wanted to see if there some other more fitting option.

You may want to look into the PandaBoard, which is based around the
OMAP4 and has an onboard wireless interface (although kernel support for
this device is fairly new).

The second question is whether there is an off the shelf Wi-Fi Direct
controller board/peripheral is available. We searched around but
couldn’t any places offering it.

Have you looked at using a USB adapter? This is likely the simplest
option.

- Ben

4

Thanks for the reply Ben!

yeah, we considered the PandaBoard as well since as you said, it comes
with WiFi and BT embedded, which makes things much simpler. The only
thing is that it was more expensive and prob. less support and
activity since it's fairly new. The main thing that worries us is the
support given how 'green' we are this :slight_smile:

Our other big question is regarding "Wi-Fi Direct", you mentioned a
USB adapter, do you have a link to it? This is different from the
regular WiFi, "Wi-Fi Direct" http://www.wi-fi.org/Wi-Fi_Direct.php
allows two different Wi-Fi direct devices to talk to each other
without the need of an AP. We looked at pretty hard didn't find any
peripheral devices nor any controller board devices that gives "Wi-Fi
Direct" capability. If anyone knows otherwise please point us in the
right direction.

5

I've never seen this terminology but it looks like marketing-speak for
an ad-hoc 802.11 network. All wireless devices (as far as I know) fully
support this mode of operation. Of course, make sure that you choose a
device that has native Linux drivers. Thankfully, driver support is very
good nowadays[1].

Cheers,

- Ben

[1] http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Devices/USB

6

Thanks Ben. From what I understand, all devices today with standard
WiFi capabilities are capable of talking to each, transferring files
between device A and device B but in order for that to happen, they
need to have an AP or access point to manage and relay the packets
between the two devices.

With "Wi-Fi Direct" the need to have an AP is removed, Device C w/ Wi-
Fi Direct can talk to Device D w/ Wi-Fi Direct. Some of the newer TVs
out there come with Wi-Fi Direct capabilities already. We were
wondering if there was a controller board or peripheral we can attach
to the BB that will give us this capability.

7

No, this is known as 802.11's infrastructure mode. Ad-hoc mode allows
stations to connect to a network without an access point. This has
always been supported. This sort of information can be easily found on,
e.g. Wikipedia[1].

- Ben

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_ad_hoc_network

8

I thought the same at first, but wifi-direct is a software layer over ad-hoc mode: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Direct

regards,

Koen

9

Thanks Ben, I wasn't aware that. Koen also pointed out wifi-direct is
a software layer over ad-hoc mode.
So far it looks like PandaBoard might be the best option with the
embedded wifi and bt capabilities. We'll do more reading and see which
is our best option. I'm sure we'll be back :slight_smile:

If anyone has more information regarding WiFi Direct please point us
in the right direction, much appreciated. We'll have do more reading
on this as well.

Thanks for the link Prononyc, can you paste the link one more time,
the url I get is broken link.