iPad + WCF duplex + protobuf

Question

I'm about to start building an iPad client for an existing WCF service that currently communicates via Duplex channel callbacks and pushes lightweight data transfer objects to the client at regular intervals. I'm planning to do this using monotouch.

I know that the iOS platform supports peer-to-peer communication, so my hope is that I can initiate a duplex communication channel from the service to the device after the device has initiated the first connection.

Will this approach work on an iPad?

Currently I'm using protobuf-net to squish my payload into a nice tight byte[] and the client deserializes it accordingly. Can I continue to do so?

Or should I expose a second interface with the service and implement a new polling model with XML response objects to compliment the push model for my existing client apps?

Any advice on a better way to approach this is appreciated.

Answer 1

I can't comment on the duplex, but re protobuf-net - yes, especially in v2; there is an iOS build in the zip, and I know of success stories using this with both monotouch and unity.