MWC: Qualcomm gets proximal

Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) may be known as the world’s premier supplier of the phone’s silicon guts, but it always has a few side technology projects it likes to show off at the big trade shows. In the past, its demoed whiz-bang user interface concepts technologies like augmented reality and futuristic nanotechnology such as its micro-electrical-mechanical Mirasol screen displays. This year at Mobile World Congress Qualcomm’s tech du jour is proximity communications.

Qualcomm has given demos of its peer-to-peer technology before, but this year it’s taking the wraps off of two big projects, one proprietary and one open source. What they both have in common, though, is the basic principle that devices should be able to connect and communicate with one another without a pesky network acting as middleman between them.

There are all sorts of peer-to-peer applications networks today, but they all tend rely on some kind of server or box residing on the network to mitigate their transactions, whether it’s an SMS Center, mobile switching center or file-transfer server. There are also all sorts of peer-to-peer technologies from Bluetooth to WiFi to near field communications, but for the most part those connections are mere conduits, allowing the transfer of data back and forth. What Qualcomm appears to be aiming for as combination of the two: a direct link between devices, coupled with the full application and service capabilities of a network.

The first project Qualcomm has named FlashLinq and it’s aimed at creating gigantic grids of devices that automatically discover one another and continuously connect and disconnect as needed to create ad hoc distributed “neighborhood” networks. According to Qualcomm, these networks could consist of both fixed and mobile nodes, which constantly changed configuration as new mobile devices move in out of the range of the fixed ones.

Qualcomm came up a bit short on examples of how the technology would be used, saying only it would be a handy enabler for applications such as direct local advertising, geo-social location and machine-to-machine communications. It’s not hard to imagine, though, that such a powerful proximal network could be used to create hyperactive versions of social location apps like Foursquare. Instead of relying on network members to manually check in and rely on dodgy GPS coordinates saved in a server to provide context, a Foursquare proximal app could allow devices to communicate directly with one another, sharing personal and informational data directly. Instead of relying on the geo-location servers to create an approximate party, the party creates the network.

The catch is that FlashLinq requires a separate radio interface based on Qualcomm-developed time division-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing access (TD-OFDMA) technology, similar to the technology used in WiMax. Qualcomm has had little success with introducing supplementary radio and data technologies at the hardware level. MediaFLO gained few adherents because each FLO TV device required a dedicated FLO receiver. BREW’s initial implementation was limited because the software platform was built directly into Qualcomm’s device chipsets. That might limit FlashLinq’s use to vertical market applications since every device in the ad hoc network would require a FlashLinq chip. When developers design consumer apps they want them to work on Nokia (NYSE:NOK) phones, too.

The second project, however, alleviates that exact problem. In fact, the project is a distinctively un-Qualcomm-like initiative in that it’s open source. Traditionally Qualcomm holds onto its intellectual with an iron grip. AllJoyn, as the initiative is called, creates an open-source platform on which developers can build proximity apps that utilize readily available peer-to-peer connections like WiFi and Bluetooth.

Qualcomm has demonstrated the technology behind AllJoyn in the past. At Qualcomm’s Uplinq event last summer, CEO Paul Jacobs demonstrated a multiplayer real-time game played between an iPhone and an Android smartphone using a Bluetooth connection. Qualcomm is tackling the initial problems associated with these kinds of ad hoc connections: device discovery and recognition, networking functionality, message routing and security and authentication. Developers are then invited to build apps on that framework using a software development kit and to contribute to the source code itself.

Ultimately peer-to-peer communications could prove a powerful technology in wireless as more and more apps become presence and location aware. Instead of using the network to go in search of information stored in some far distant sever, more and more apps are trying to access information that’s right next to the user, sending the information request on a long circular journey through several tiers of network infrastructure. Not only would cutting the network out of the occasion save time and allow for extremely low-latency applications, it would spare precious radio network resources as mobile data traffic levels escalate.