A ubiquitous, infrastructure-free network for interpersonal communication

Although cellphone hardware is capable of communicating directly with the hardware of other cellphones, this is rarely done. We describe the design of a low-bandwidth peer-to-peer ad-hoc network, AllNet, to provide connectivity among smart mobile devices using established direct, ad-hoc, and delay-tolerant algorithms. AllNet can be used for secure interpersonal communication in a number of situations, most notably in emergencies, but also for social networking, chatting, and organizing. The low resource usage of AllNet encourages individuals to support others´ communication, as is needed in this peer-to-peer setting.