Strategies

  • Nearby Connections offers three connection strategies: Cluster, Star, and Point-to-Point, each designed for different use cases and connection topologies.

  • The Cluster strategy enables connections between multiple devices within radio range, ideal for mesh-like experiences with smaller payloads, like multiplayer gaming.

  • The Star strategy allows a central device (hub) to connect with multiple other devices (spokes), best suited for scenarios with one advertiser and multiple discoverers, offering higher bandwidth suitable for video sharing.

  • The Point-to-Point strategy focuses on high-bandwidth, one-to-one connections, prioritizing data transfer speed over maintaining multiple connections, ideal for sharing large files.

Nearby Connections supports different strategies for advertising and discovery. The best strategy to use depends on the use case.

Cluster

The cluster strategy is a peer-to-peer strategy that supports an M-to-N, or cluster-shaped, connection topology. In other words, this enables connecting amorphous clusters of devices within radio range (~100m), where each device can both initiate outgoing connections to M other devices and accept incoming connections from N other devices.

This strategy is more flexible in its topology constraints than the star strategy, but results in lower bandwidth connections. It is good for use cases with smaller payloads that require a more mesh-like experience, such as multiplayer gaming.

Star

The star strategy is a peer-to-peer strategy that supports a 1-to-N, or star-shaped, connection topology. In other words, this enables connecting devices within radio range (~100m) in a star shape, where each device can, at any given time, play the role of either a hub (where it can accept incoming connections from N other devices), or a spoke (where it can initiate an outgoing connection to a single hub), but not both.

This strategy lends itself best to situations where there is one device advertising, and N devices which discover the advertiser, though you may still advertise and discover simultaneously if required.

This strategy is more strict in its topology constraints than the cluster strategy, but results in higher bandwidth connections. It is good for high-bandwidth use cases such as sharing a video to a group of friends.

Point-to-Point

The point-to-point strategy is a peer-to-peer strategy that supports a 1-to-1 connection topology. In other words, this enables connecting devices within radio range (~100m) with the highest possible throughput, but does not allow for more than a single connection at a time.

This strategy lends itself best to situations where transferring data is more important than the flexibility of maintaining multiple connections.

This strategy is more strict in its topology constraints than the star strategy, but results in higher bandwidth connections. It is good for high-bandwidth use cases such as sharing a large video to another device.