Open Radar

 
Summary:
Ability to provide better support for “offline” or “closed network” scenarios, where no Internet connection is possible or desirable.

While it’s nice to see the world as continuously connected, this isn’t always the case (either because of things like remoteness or by choice). While Remote Notifications do provide a convenient way to trigger actions within an app, it also limits the use of the device to an “always connected” state.

For example, using a satellite modem as a VoIP bridge for iDevices to make/receive VoIP calls without the ability to use Remote Notifications.

A closed venue network which doesn’t provide access to the Internet, but which might want to provide timely notifications, like conferences, airports, expos, remote resorts, etc.

Adhoc networks which are built for a single event, like a music festival or sports tournament, which is likely to be a closed/local network but which wants to provide information to the people attending it.

This might require support for IP based devices to send data to apps which are currently not in the foreground, similar to how Remote Notifications and Bluetooth background modes work now, but over and existing WiFi network, where the app is unsuspended for a short period of time and allowed to process the data before been suspended again.

This could be utilized to provide up-to-date information about connected devices on the network, like temperature changes from a weather station or updates from some other sensor (like a motion sensor).

The App would first need to discover and connect to the IP based device (possibly directly via an IP address or through other discovery services, like Bonjour)

Obviously, this would require end-to-end encryption (probably utilizing public/private keys which could require a service provider to have to generate these keys from you (Apple)) and be an opt-in service with the ability for the user to opt-out at any time.

The service by which this is achieved could also be maintained as a software black-box, by you, and run as a service on a local server of some kind or a hardware device, built into a dongle for example, or made available as a chipset, which could be made available to manufacturers through the MFi program.

Steps to Reproduce:
NA

Expected Results:
Ability to generate notifications from a IP based device and send them directly to one (targeted) or more registered devices within the local network, without the need for a Internet Connection or APNS

Actual Results:
APNS does not work without a Internet Connection