Researchers at cell phone maker Nokia's research center here are said to have developed a mobile network that could soon let you swap music, images, games, and other materials the way you would on a standard peer-to-peer file-swapping network.
A team led by Lorant Farkas has tested the mobile P2P on a model in Nokia's 6000 cell phone series, and it can be used to swap pictures and text. "We were primarily thinking of [that] kind of content," Farkas told an interviewer, but he added that future versions of the technology should go further, into sharing content like digital music which he called a priority.
The Nokia system in testing is designed to work on cell phones tied to GPRS networks aimed at making it inexpensive to stay online, according to a published report which said the Farkas team came upon a structure known as the deterministic ring, mixing fast search with network resilience.
But the Nokia team still has obstacles to overcome, especially since cell phones for now still have to rely on limited battery power and don't have the processing power of a full-tilt computer, the report added. And, the report said further, such a P2P system would still end up in a tussle with the entertainment industry still fighting P2P.
The entertainment industry has a converse problem of its own, now. Last week, Altnet, which sells digital products through P2P networks, sued the Recording Industry Association of America, accusing the music trade group of infringing its FastTrack technology patent while trying to enforce copyrights in the P2P community.
