Social networking and advertisements in a mobile device on a local personal area network

A method comprising:

• selecting a service category corresponding to an application to monitor over a local media access control (MAC) layer of an ad-hoc wireless network;
• receiving a first service advertisement from another device on the local MAC layer of the ad-hoc wireless network;
• and
• displaying the advertised first service if it corresponds to the selected service category.

An apparatus for media access control (MAC) layer processing, the apparatus comprising:

• an application interface to permit a service category corresponding to an application to be selected, and to permit a service announcement corresponding to the application to be advertised;
• a generator logic to generate the service announcement to be advertised;
• a MAC layer processor to insert the service announcement into a beacon in a local MAC layer of an ad-hoc wireless network and to receive advertisements from other devices on the local MAC layer of the ad-hoc wireless network;
• and
• a monitor logic to monitor the local MAC layer of the ad-hoc wireless network for advertisements corresponding to the selected service category.

A personal area network (PAN) device comprising:

• an application;
• an application interface to permit a service category corresponding to the application to be selected, and to permit a service announcement corresponding to the application to be advertised;
• a generator logic to generate the service announcement to be advertised;
• a MAC layer processor to insert the service announcement into a beacon in a MAC layer of a PAN and to receive advertisements from other devices on the MAC layer of the PAN;
• a monitor logic coupled with the application interface to monitor the MAC layer of the PAN for advertisements corresponding to the selected service category to be displayed by the application;
• and
• a physical layer processor to process the service announcement to be wirelessly transmitted via a radio transmitter as a portion of one of one or more beacon frames in the MAC layer of the PAN.