In this letter, a new scatternet formation algorithm called hybrid mesh tree for Bluetooth ad hoc networks was proposed. The hybrid mesh tree constructs a mesh-shaped topology in one dense area that is extended by tree-shaped topology to the other areas. First, the hybrid mesh tree uses a designated root to construct a tree-shaped subnet, and then propagates a constant k in its downstream direction to determine new roots. Each new root then asks its upstream master to start a return connection procedure to convert the first tree-shaped subnet into a mesh-shaped subnet. At the same time, each new root repeats the same procedure as the designated root to build its own tree-shaped subnet until the whole scatternet is formed. Simulation results showed that the hybrid mesh tree achieved better network performance than Bluetree and generated an efficient scatternet configuration for various sizes of Bluetooth scatternets.

Recently, bluetooth technology has become widely prevalent so that many laptops and mobile phones are equipped with bluetooth capability. In order to meet the increasing demand to interconnect these devices a new scatternet formation protocol named GBSFP (General Bluetooth Scatternet Formation Protocol) is proposed in this paper. GBSFP is the result of efforts to overcome the two major limitations of the legacy scatternet formation protocols as regards their real implementation, that all of the nodes should be within the Bluetooth communication range or that they should be time synchronized. In GBSFP, a node goes through three phases; 1) the Init phase to establish a bluetooth link to as many of its neighbors as possible, 2) the Ready phase to determine the role of each node, i.e., master or slave, and remove any unnecessary bluetooth links, and 3) the Complete phase to finalize the formation of the scatternet and begin data transmission. The simulation results show that GBSFP provides higher connectivity in many scenarios compared with BTCP and BlueStars.

In this letter, a decentralized scatternet formation algorithm called Bluelayer is proposed. First, Bluelayer uses a designated root to construct a tree-shaped subnet and propagates an integer variable k1 called counter limit as well as a constant k in its downstream direction to determine new roots. Then each new root asks its upstream master to start a return connection procedure to convert the tree-shaped subnet into a web-shaped subnet for its immediate upstream root. At the same time, each new root repeats the same procedure as the root to build its own subnet until the whole scatternet is formed. Simulation results show that Bluelayer achieves good network scalability and generates an efficient scatternet configuration for various sizes of Bluetooth ad hoc network.

Blueweb is a self-organizing Bluetooth-based multihop network equipped with a scatternet formation algorithm and a modified source routing protocol. In this paper, we first review the basic Blueweb network. Then we focus on a heuristic automatic configuration algorithm which can be used to partition a large-scale Blueweb network. This algorithm contains three main functional blocks including route master selection, node assignment, and subnet number decision. The route master selection block selects new route masters at a low computation cost. The node assignment block assigns nodes to each newly configured subnet in order to minimize the average route query cost. The subnet number decision block determines the optimal number of subnet which achieves the largest system performance improvement ratio at minimum operation cost. With these three functional blocks, optimal network configuration for Blueweb routing protocol can be determined. Computer simulations show that a configured Blueweb achieves higher network capacity than an unconfigured Blueweb.

In this paper, we present Blueweb, a new Bluetooth-based multihop network with an efficient scatternet formation algorithm and a hybrid routing protocol. The Blueweb is designed from the original idea of Bluetree. Blueweb's scatternet formation uses two mechanisms. One is the role exchange mechanism in which only slave nodes serve as the role of relay through the whole scatternet. The other one is the return connection mechanism in which we convert the scatternet from a tree-shaped to a web-shaped topology. Meanwhile, a modified source routing protocol is designed for Blueweb in which we combine the proactive method with the reactive method to discover the optimal path for packet transmission. Furthermore, using computer simulations we compared the system performance of Blueweb and Bluetree with both a static model and a uniform traffic model. With the static model we evaluate the scatternet performance and with the uniform traffic model we evaluate the transmission performance. Our simulation results show that Blueweb achieves superior system performance than Bluetree on both scatternet performance and transmission performance.

Bluetooth is reputed as a wireless networking technology capable of forming ad-hoc networks between digital devices. In particular, the Bluetooth scatternet will be an essential part of the fully distributed ad-hoc networks. However, scatternet is not fully described in the Bluetooth specification. This has been the topic of discussion among researches in relation to the formation algorithm, scheduling scheme, etc. Most of the proposed algorithms reported in past researches on scatternet formation are too large and complex to be implemented in a real commercial Bluetooth hardware. Therefore, the verifications of the proposed algorithms reported in past researches were done through only simulations. In addition, the formation process takes too long and these past researches had been conducted only in static environment where no node enters or leaves the scatternet. In this paper, therefore, we propose a new scatternet formation algorithm called Node Ring Scatternet (NRS), emphasizing on two aspects, i.e. implementation and dynamic property of the algorithm. The algorithm is very simple and compact and is verified to be easily implementable in a real commercial Bluetooth device. For the dynamic properties, the NRS entails relatively short formation delay and a reformation algorithm in a dynamic environment was designed. Therefore, the network of the NRS can be scalable and flexible. In addition, a new protocol called SFMP (Scatternet Formation & Management Protocol) was designed and is presented herein. Using this protocol, the NRS algorithm was implemented in a real Bluetooth device, and the performance was verified through hardware experiments. Based on the experimental results, it was found that the NRS composed of up to 20 nodes is formed and the proposed algorithm has shown improvement in terms of formation delay, formation probability and reformation.

Topology of a network greatly affects the network performance. Depending on the purpose of a network, a specific topology may perform much better than any other topologies. Since the ad hoc networks are formed for a specific purpose, determining, and constructing the network topology based on the application requirements will enhance system performance. This paper proposes Bluetooth scatternet forming protocol in which the network topology is determined by three parameters. The parameters affecting the topology are the number of maximum slaves in a piconet, the number of maximum piconets that a gateway Bluetooth device can service, and the number of loops needed in the formed scatternet. These parameters can be read from a script file prior to the network formation. This process of reading the important parameters from the file would give users freedom in determining the network topology. The proposed protocol also includes a role negotiation process to accommodate different capabilities of the participating devices. The negotiation process of the protocol allows the resource-limited nodes to participate in the network. Different types of scatternet topologies like star, mesh, ring and line can be formed by specifying the parameters. This paper also discusses theoretical information necessary for calculating network topologies in detail. The protocol is verified with help of simulations, and implementations using commercially available Bluetooth devices. The detailed results are also presented in this paper.

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the impacts of impulsive class-A noise, co-channel interference due to other piconet, Rician fading on the packet error rate (PER), and throughput performance in the Bluetooth scatternet. Simulation results illustrate the significant difference in performance between synchronous and asynchronous Bluetooth systems. The paper also provides the insights on how to design Bluetooth scatternet for minimal PER and maximum throughput performance.