Possible GSOC project ideas

[todd rme <toddrme2178 gmail com>]

Will you be applying to participate in GSOC this year?  If so, I have
some ideas about possible projects someone in the group may want to
mentor (I am not applying, there are just ideas you may want to
suggest to potential applicants).  Even if not, these might be items
for the TODO list:

1. Implement one item on the TODO list.  I was going to propose
implement WPS, but I see this is already on the todo list.

2. Implement wifi-direct/p2p.  This allows two wireless devices to
connect directly to each other, securely sending files without going
over a WIFI network.  Android now supports this, and the iPhone has
some implementation although it is compatible with normal ones.
Further, it is a prerequisite for the new miracast standard, which
allows wireless streaming of videos between supported devices.
Android now supports it for sending video, and it looks like TVs will
start implementing it for receiving video in the near future.  People
have been working on this in wpa_supplicant, but I don't know its
status so this project may require some hacking there too.

3. Implement auto-detection of connection status.  This would be a
check that is carried out after connecting to a wired or wireless
network.  It would check whether you are actually able to browse the
internet.  The most likely approach would be to have website hosted on
one or more free-software servers that would contain a particular code
in its HTML, and networkmanager would check for that code.  If it gets
an error, it would send a signal of some sort to the front-end that it
cannot connect.  If it is instead returned a different web page, it
will assume you are at an airport, hotel, or other such public space
that requires that you do something on a web page before it will let
you connect, and it will signal the front-end of this so the front-end
can open a browser or display the page in some other way.  Front-ends
should also be able to signal the backend to re-check the status, and
it should probably automatically re-check at some interval.  I know
windows 7 has a built-in connectivity test, and android has the
ability to automatically check whether one of these login sites is in
the way.