Windows 10 Miracast: Peer-to-Peer or Over-Infrastructure

This article applies to the following ScreenBeam products:

There are two types of Miracast connections possible from Windows 10 devices:

• Peer-to-Peer connections, where the PC establishes a virtual network connection directly to the ScreenBeam
• Over-Infrastructure connections, where the PC sends wireless display traffic to the ScreenBeam over the existing infrastructure network connection

To the end user, the process to initiate a peer-to-peer or over-infrastructure Miracast connection is the same, simply open the Connect menu in Windows and select the receiver from the list of available devices. 

It is possible to tell whether a PC is connected peer-to-peer or over-infrastructure to the ScreenBeam using the Windows Task Manager while the wireless display section is active.  Open Task Manager (you may need to click on the More details arrow) and go to the Performance Tab.

Miracast Peer-to-Peer

If the performance tab shows two performance charts labeled "Wi-Fi", or one chart labeled "Wi-Fi" and a second labeled "Wi-Fi Direct" the connection between the PC and the ScreenBeam is using Miracast Peer-to-Peer.  The SSID shown in the Wi-Fi Direct chart is the SSID generated by the ScreenBeam, and should begin with DIRECT-xy .

Miracast Over-Infrastructure

If there's only one performance chart labeled "Wi-Fi" and the SSID is the SSID for the infrastructure Wi-Fi network that the PC is connected to, then the connection between the PC and the ScreenBeam is using Miracast Over-Infrastructure.

By design, discovery of Miracast devices always uses the Wi-Fi radio on the PC, but if the PC was connected to an infrastructure network with an Ethernet cable it is possible for the wireless display traffic to be sent over the Ethernet cable, in which case there wouldn't be any Wi-Fi performance charts, only and Ethernet performance chart.

The ScreenBeam can connect to a network using an Ethernet cable, or the secondary Wi-Fi radio, both of these interfaces support Miracast Over-Infrastructure.

Related Articles

• What is Windows 10 Miracast over Infrastructure and does ScreenBeam support it?