Why Seamless? Towards Exploiting WLAN-Based Intermittent Connectivity on the Road

This paper discusses new mobile usage scenarios for WLAN technologies and presents an architecture that is based on the notion of intermittent connectivity instead of seamless connectivity. The Drive-thru Internet approach is intended to support Internet applications of mobile users in environments where no permanent connectivity is available, a common case for nomadic users. We have chosen the extreme scenario of users in vehicles moving at high speed on the road and provide connectivity by means of WLAN access points. Our service architecture takes the transient character of local network access into account and provides for persistent transport connections and application layer mobility. From reviewing common Internet applications, we derive application-specific extensions to optimise various kinds of protocols and provide a concrete usage example. We also discuss the relation of Drive-thru Internet to technologies such as network layer mobility, authenticated network access, common WLAN hot spot setups, and WLAN roaming.