A system and method in a wireless network for discovering which resources
(e.g., other wireless computing devices) are proximate a user's wireless
computing device. Wireless signal strengths with respect to various base
stations are compared with the signal strengths of other network devices
or resources, to determine which devices are experiencing similar signal
strengths. Devices with similar signal strengths are deemed proximate.
Each participating computing device may send its signal strength reports
to a proximity server, which distributes proximity data to network
clients. Each client may receive and process the signal strength data for
determining which other clients/resources are proximate, or the server
can perform proximity computations and return a list of proximate
clients. Once computed, the identities of the proximate clients can be
used to query for additional data about the clients, such as the names
and other details of their owners, or information about the resource.
