# Strategies

Nearby Connections supports different strategies for advertising and discovery.
The best strategy to use depends on the use case.

## Cluster

The cluster strategy is a peer-to-peer strategy that supports an M-to-N, or
cluster-shaped, connection topology. In other words, this enables connecting
amorphous clusters of devices within radio range (\~100m), where each device can
both initiate outgoing connections to M other devices and accept incoming
connections from N other devices.

This strategy is more flexible in its topology constraints than the star
strategy, but results in lower bandwidth connections. It is good for use cases
with smaller payloads that require a more mesh-like experience, such as
multiplayer gaming.

## Star

The star strategy is a peer-to-peer strategy that supports a 1-to-N, or
star-shaped, connection topology. In other words, this enables connecting
devices within radio range (\~100m) in a star shape, where each device can, at
any given time, play the role of either a hub (where it can accept incoming
connections from N other devices), or a spoke (where it can initiate an outgoing
connection to a single hub), but not both.

This strategy lends itself best to situations where there is one device
advertising, and N devices which discover the advertiser, though you may still
advertise and discover simultaneously if required.

This strategy is more strict in its topology constraints than the cluster
strategy, but results in higher bandwidth connections. It is good for
high-bandwidth use cases such as sharing a video to a group of friends.

## Point-to-Point

The point-to-point strategy is a peer-to-peer strategy that supports a 1-to-1
connection topology. In other words, this enables connecting devices within
radio range (\~100m) with the highest possible throughput, but does not allow for
more than a single connection at a time.

This strategy lends itself best to situations where transferring data is more
important than the flexibility of maintaining multiple connections.

This strategy is more strict in its topology constraints than the star strategy,
but results in higher bandwidth connections. It is good for high-bandwidth use
cases such as sharing a large video to another device.