Particle-like wifi configuration Can anybody tell me how the Particle (Photon/Core) WiFi setup works?

I am looking to mimic this WiFi configuration format for my own device.

The basic steps are as follows:


Power device on; put in "listening mode" if not already active;
Connect smartphone to the wireless network that you want to connect your device to;
Open the Tinker/Spark/whatever-it's-called App on your smartphone; choose "Add New Device";
Enter wireless password;
Wait for device to be discovered by the App; device is now connected to WiFi.


How is the information (SSID, password) transferred from the smartphone to the device?

Thanks in advance.
The Particle Photon is a replacement for the Spark Core module. This module was exploiting the Texas Instrument CC3000 chip. It was this chip that handle the very simple and convenient Wi-Fi configuration of the Spark Core. Texas Instrument named this method : SimpleLink.

The Particle Photon is now using a different module than the Core : a Broadcom BCM43362 instead of the CC3000. It's seems to work in a similar manner even if I was not able to find any information on it.

I've found on the George Howkins Depletion Region blog  multiple articles that explain how the CC3000 SimpleLink works.


CC3000 Smart Config - transmitting SSID and keyphrase
CC3000 advertises presence on network via DNS-SD


All the posts : http://depletionregion.blogspot.fr/search?q=smart+config