A survey on Bluetooth multi-hop networks

Bluetooth was firstly announced in 1998. Originally designed as cable replacement connecting devices in a point-to-point fashion its high penetration arouses interest in its ad-hoc networking potential. This ad-hoc networking potential of Bluetooth is advertised for years - but until recently no actual products were available and less than a handful of real Bluetooth multi-hop network deployments were reported. The turnaround was triggered by the release of the Bluetooth Low Energy Mesh Profile which is unquestionable a great achievement but not well suited for all use cases of multi-hop networks. This paper surveys the tremendous work done on Bluetooth multi-hop networks during the last 20 years. All aspects are discussed with demands for a real world Bluetooth multi-hop operation in mind. Relationships and side effects of different topics for a real world implementation are explained. This unique focus distinguishes this survey from existing ones. Furthermore, to the best of the authors’ knowledge this is the first survey consolidating the work on Bluetooth multi-hop networks for classic Bluetooth technology as well as for Bluetooth Low Energy. Another individual characteristic of this survey is a synopsis of real world Bluetooth multi-hop network deployment efforts. In fact, there are only four reports of a successful establishment of a Bluetooth multi-hop network with more than 30 nodes and only one of them was integrated in a real world application - namely a photovoltaic power plant. © 2019 The Author

A PROTOCOL SUITE FOR WIRELESS PERSONAL AREA NETWORKS

A Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) is an ad hoc network that consists of devices that surround an individual or an object. Bluetooth® technology is especially suitable for formation of WPANs due to the pervasiveness of devices with Bluetooth® chipsets, its operation in the unlicensed Industrial, Scientific, Medical (ISM) frequency band, and its interference resilience. Bluetooth® technology has great potential to become the de facto standard for communication between heterogeneous devices in WPANs. The piconet, which is the basic Bluetooth® networking unit, utilizes a Master/Slave (MS) configuration that permits only a single master and up to seven active slave devices. This structure limitation prevents Bluetooth® devices from directly participating in larger Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) and Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs). In order to build larger Bluetooth® topologies, called scatternets, individual piconets must be interconnected. Since each piconet has a unique frequency hopping sequence, piconet interconnections are done by allowing some nodes, called bridges, to participate in more than one piconet. These bridge nodes divide their time between piconets by switching between Frequency Hopping (FH) channels and synchronizing to the piconet\u27s master. In this dissertation we address scatternet formation, routing, and security to make Bluetooth® scatternet communication feasible. We define criteria for efficient scatternet topologies, describe characteristics of different scatternet topology models as well as compare and contrast their properties, classify existing scatternet formation approaches based on the aforementioned models, and propose a distributed scatternet formation algorithm that efficiently forms a scatternet topology and is resilient to node failures. We propose a hybrid routing algorithm, using a bridge link agnostic approach, that provides on-demand discovery of destination devices by their address or by the services that devices provide to their peers, by extending the Service Discovery Protocol (SDP) to scatternets. We also propose a link level security scheme that provides secure communication between adjacent piconet masters, within what we call an Extended Scatternet Neighborhood (ESN)

Improving forwarding mechanisms for mobile personal area networks

This thesis presents novel methods for improving forwarding mechanisms for personal area networks. Personal area networks are formed by interconnecting personal devices such as personal digital assistants, portable multimedia devices, digital cameras and laptop computers, in an ad hoc fashion. These devices are typically characterised by low complexity hardware, low memory and are usually batterypowered. Protocols and mechanisms developed for general ad hoc networking cannot be directly applied to personal area networks as they are not optimised to suit their specific constraints. The work presented herein proposes solutions for improving error control and routing over personal area networks, which are very important ingredients to the good functioning of the network. The proposed Packet Error Correction (PEC) technique resends only a subset of the transmitted packets, thereby reducing the overhead, while ensuring improved error rates. PEC adapts the number of re-transmissible packets to the conditions of the channel so that unnecessary retransmissions are avoided. It is shown by means of computer simulation that PEC behaves better, in terms of error reduction and overhead, than traditional error control mechanisms, which means that it is adequate for low-power personal devices. The proposed C2HR routing protocol, on the other hand, is designed such that the network lifetime is maximised. This is achieved by forwarding packets through the most energy efficient paths. C2HR is a hybrid routing protocol in the sense that it employs table-driven (proactive) as well as on-demand (reactive) components. Proactive routes are the primary routes, i.e., packets are forwarded through those paths when the network is stable; however, in case of failures, the protocol searches for alternative routes on-demand, through which data is routed temporarily. The advantage of C2HR is that data can still be forwarded even when routing is re-converging, thereby increasing the throughput. Simulation results show that the proposed routing method is more energy efficient than traditional least hops routing, and results in higher data throughput. C2HR relies on a network leader for collecting and distributing topology information, which in turn requires an estimate of the underlying topology. Thus, this thesis also proposes a new cooperative leader election algorithm and techniques for estimating network characteristics in mobile environments. The proposed solutions are simulated under various conditions and demonstrate appreciable behaviour

Low-Power Wireless for the Internet of Things: Standards and Applications: Internet of Things, IEEE 802.15.4, Bluetooth, Physical layer, Medium Access Control,coexistence, mesh networking, cyber-physical systems, WSN, M2M

International audienceThe proliferation of embedded systems, wireless technologies, and Internet protocols have enabled the Internet of Things (IoT) to bridge the gap between the virtual and physical world through enabling the monitoring and actuation of the physical world controlled by data processing systems. Wireless technologies, despite their offered convenience, flexibility, low cost, and mobility pose unique challenges such as fading, interference, energy, and security, which must be carefully addressed when using resource-constrained IoT devices. To this end, the efforts of the research community have led to the standardization of several wireless technologies for various types of application domains depending on factors such as reliability, latency, scalability, and energy efficiency. In this paper, we first overview these standard wireless technologies, and we specifically study the MAC and physical layer technologies proposed to address the requirements and challenges of wireless communications. Furthermore, we explain the use of these standards in various application domains, such as smart homes, smart healthcare, industrial automation, and smart cities, and discuss their suitability in satisfying the requirements of these applications. In addition to proposing guidelines to weigh the pros and cons of each standard for an application at hand, we also examine what new strategies can be exploited to overcome existing challenges and support emerging IoT applications

Co-existence of wireless communication systems in ISM bands: An analytical study

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH