Implementing a Wifi-Aware application outside Android

Question

So I'd like to use Wifi-Aware for a program outside the Android universe (let's assume Linux/OSX/Windows) and cannot find any info on this at all. At first I thought it would suffice to use a Wifi-Aware certified product running one of these OSes and then implement the Wifi-Specs, but when I tried to download the specifications, I was asked to login first (but with no option of creating an account).

Do I understand correctly that you have to be a paying member of the Wifi-Alliance to even get the specifications?

Furthermore, is my assumption that, with the specification, I would be able to implement a Wifi-Aware/NAN application on say, Windows/Linux correct? Or is the specification something that is meant for OS developers and an application would rely on support from OS (like Android provides) to support this? (This would then mean that it is in fact impossible to implement Wifi-Aware applications on Windows/Linux, since the OSes do not seem to support it)

Edit: There is a question on this, but it seems to have been asked from a user, not a programmer perspective, and is not going into much detail, so I do not consider this one to be a duplicate.

Answer 1

You need support for WiFi Aware at the hardware and the OS levels.

The wifi.org website mentions the following "certified Wi-Fi Aware devices":

• Broadcom BCM4361 11ac STA Reference Design
• Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265
• Marvell 802.11ac Wave2 Wi-Fi Test Bed Evaluation Kit
• Qualcomm® mobile Wi-Fi AC2 chipset

I guess that Intel card might be your best bet? Although the iwlwifi driver page mentions that:

While we advertise support for Wi-Fi Location* and Wi-Fi Aware* on 8260, we can't commmit on accurate results for those features. NAN isn't considered stable yet and may or may not work depending on the firmware version.

As for OS support, as far as I know that is currently limited to Android.