Blaubot – hassle-free multi-device applications

Abstract

Blaubot is a middleware that supports channel-based communication among many Android devices forming a local group. It abstracts from the underlying networking infrastructure supporting at least Bluetooth and WLAN configured as star network using point-to-point connections with automated master selection. A flexible beacon-based connection management discovers, (re-)connects, and merges local groups automatically using several independent network infrastructures including protocols such as Multicast, Bluetooth, and NFC concurrently. This allows for dynamic expanding and shrinking of the group during program execution, but sacrifices guaranteed delivery. An easy to use API allows to post prioritised messages on queue-based channels, that are delivered to all subscribed group members.