On-demand TCP: transparent peer to peer TCP/IP over IrDA

This paper describes a novel approach to using TCP/IP applications over IrDA (Infrared Data Association) and Bluetooth. First, we look into why so few applications are available over IrDA and what is necessary to make the use of those applications attractive to end-users. Then, we present a new scheme that enables the use of the IrDA communication layer by those applications in a transparent fashion with minimal overhead. We describe the various components necessary to implement such a scheme, IrNET, the name resolver and the discovery manager, and explain how we have implemented those components under Linux. We finish by showing a few examples of use of those components with real applications.