What is new for Multipeer Connectivity

Hi All,

I noticed in the WWDC 2015 schedule that there was a lab for multipeer connectivyt but it's not on the videos page. Do you know where I can find the video? Or if not availabe, what's new for the framework?


Thanks!

AFAIK Multipeer Connectivity has no new features in iOS 9 / OS X 10.11, which is why there was no session on it this year.


Share and Enjoy

--

Quinn "The Eskimo!"

Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

That is very disapointing to read.

Have they not even tried to get it to work? It is so unstable in objc that it is a joke!

Has anyone found it more stable using Swift, or is it just as bad?

I think it's safe to say that your choice of language won't have any impact on whatever problems you're having with Multipeer Connectivity.


Also, the lack of new features does not imply that no work has been done on the framework; it's common for frameworks to get substantial improvements under the hood without having any impact on their public API [1].


* * *


In my experience a lot of folks using Multipeer Connectivity run into problems because their network architecture doesn't match the architecture that Multipeer Connectivity was designed to support. Specifically, if you're building an app that has one server and lots of clients, it's better to use standard networking APIs (Bonjour + TCP/IP) than Multipeer Connectivity because Multipeer Connectivity is really designed to support a set of cooperating peers.


It's also important to realise that Multipeer Connectivity is not the only way to get to peer-to-peer Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The standard networking APIs work with those interfaces just fine.


Share and Enjoy

--

Quinn "The Eskimo!"

Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware


[1] Although I don't have specific information about Multipeer Connectivity in this context.

This is very useful summary, thanks! Would be interested in reading more about setting up peer-to-peer WiFi as my application requires higher bandwidth than what's recommended for Bluetooth LE. Are you aware of good resources on peer-to-peer WiFi development to get started with?


Many thanks,

Stefan

I too would be interested to know what APIs you're referring to for P2P that don't require Multipeer Connectivity, as I'm currently having this issue and looking for an alternative: Multipeer Connectivity Mac WiFi Speed Degradation

Are you aware of good resources on peer-to-peer WiFi development to get started with?

A good place to start is WiTap.

Share and Enjoy

Quinn "The Eskimo!"
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@apple.com"

Thanks very much eskimo, this was a very useful link. Went through the code and it makes sense, so I'll play around with it. I know I'm pushing my luck (can also submit a different thread if you prefer?) but do you happen to know of a feature-by-feature and limitations comparison article between Multipeer Connectivity and NSNetworkService. After going through the code it seems that NSNetworkService is better suited for a server-client type of applications but then again I read this Apple article which suggests that Multipeer Connectivity is built on top of NSNetworkService and simply adds convinience.


https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/NetworkingInternetWeb/Conceptual/NetworkingOverview/Discovering,Browsing,AndAdvertisingNetworkServices/Discovering,Browsing,AndAdvertisingNetworkServices.html


Many thanks,

Stefan

I am terribly sorry if I offended you Eskimo, but the fact is that Multipeer doesn't work, in my opinion.


We tried to use it in an Enterprise app and it works great with two devices. Not so good with three and anything above that it just falls apart.

It's a great pity as the idea is good.


I was hoping that with Swift 2.0 coming out there would have been some work done to make it more stable.


No-one would be more happy than me if I could get it to work. I've tried to get it to work as a mesh, as it is supposed to work, but with no avail. Again, two devices work great, involve more and you're in for trouble. One suggestion (Apple) was that is you lost contact with a peer, to dump the MPC object and start again.

Again, works great with two devices, but not so great with more.


I need 8 devices talking to each other - please tell me it can be done!

Hi Quinn,


Is there any reason why WiTap won't allow multiple clients to connect to one server? i.e. multiple players connecting to each other?


I see that it is missing code that would take a change and propagate it back out. However, is there any technical reason why the send call on the output stream can't write to multple clilents? I'm just beginning to look at the sample, so I may be missing something. My goal here is to replace a Multipeer Connectivity in an existing app, where MC gets all confused and stops being able to make connections. In each app (they're all local using WiFi or infrastructure mode), I have a server instance that sends data to any connected client apps. Meanwhile, each client app may or may not have a server instance to allow it to send data to other clients.


Is WiTap/NSNetService a good place to start, or do you recommend I try to stick with MC?


Also, I see that WiTap provides telnet access for testing. How does one do Bonjour lookups in Terminal to find the address to pass to terminal?


Thanks


Mahboud

What is new for Multipeer Connectivity
 
 
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