Abstract The design principles of pervasive computing software architectures are widely driven by the need for opportunistic interaction among distributed, mobile and heterogeneous entities in the absence of global knowledge and naming conventions. Peer-to-Peer (P2P) frameworks have evolved, abstracting the access to shared, while distributed information. To bridge the architectural gap between P2P applications and P2P frameworks we propose patterns as an organizational schema for P2P based software systems. Our Peer-it hardware platform is used to demonstrate an application in the domain of flexible manufacturing systems.