Exploring wireless communication alternatives with android through the implementation of a ticket queuing system

Abstract

Android has become the most widely used operative system on mobile devices. As it evolved, it has incorporated wider support for wireless communications. Android devices could help managing every day issues, relying on their communication capabilities. The aims of this study are to explore different communication mechanisms supported by Android, through the implementation of a ticket queuing system. The proposed system consists of a server application acting as queue manager, and a client application capable of requesting tickets. Clients remain informed about the ticket waiting time and get alerts when they need to head to the server’s physical location. In this study, a queuing mechanism has been developed, capable of running on top of different wireless communication mechanisms. It successfully implements communication through the Android’s Network Service Discovery mechanism, in combination with TCP and UDP communication. This system can incorporate Wi-Fi Direct or any other communication protocols in the future.