C3PO: A Network and Application Framework for Spontaneous and Ephemeral Social Networks

Abstract : The C3PO project promotes the development of new kind of social networks called Spontaneous and Ephemeral Social Networks (SESNs) dedicated to happenings such as cultural or sport events. SESNs rely on both opportunistic networks formed dynamically by the mobile devices of event attendees, and on an event-based communication model. Therefore, user can exchange digital contents with the other members of their SESNs, even without Internet access. This paper presents the framework developed in the C3PO project to provide network and application supports in such challenged networks. This framework exploits the different wireless interfaces of the mobile devices to interconnect them and to disseminate content through the resulting opportunistic network. At the application layer, this framework is composed of plugins that process locally the data stream to offer generic features, or to easily build applications dedicated to specific happenings.