Distributed Construction and Maintenance of Bandwidth-Efficient Bluetooth Scatternets

Bluetooth networks can be constructed as piconets or scatternets depending on the number of nodes in the network. Although piconet construction is a well-defined process specified in Bluetooth standards, scatternet construction policies and algorithms are not well specified. Among many solution proposals for this problem, only a few of them focus on efficient usage of bandwidth in the resulting scatternets. In this paper, we propose a distributed algorithm for the scatternet construction problem, that dynamically constructs and maintains a scatternet based on estimated traffic flow rates between nodes. The algorithm is adaptive to changes and maintains a constructed scatternet for bandwidth-efficiency when nodes come and go or when traffic flow rates change. Based on simulations, the paper also presents the improvements in bandwidth-efficiency provided by the proposed algorithm

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

Message forwarding techniques in Bluetooth enabled opportunistic communication environment

These days, most of the mobile phones are smart enough with computer like intelligence and equipped with multiple communication technologies such as Bluetooth, wireless LAN, GPRS and GSM. Different communication medium on single device have unlocked the new horizon of communication means. Modern mobile phones are not only capable of using traditional way of communication via GSM or GPRS; but, also use wireless LANs using access points where available. Among these communication means, Bluetooth technology is very intriguing and unique in nature. Any two devices equipped with Bluetooth technology can communicate directly due to their unique IDs in the world. This is opposite to GSM or Wireless LAN technology; where devices are dependent on infrastructure of service providers and have to pay for their services. Due to continual advancement in the field of mobile technology, mobile ad-hoc network seems to be more realised than ever using Bluetooth. In traditional mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs), before information sharing, devices have partial or full knowledge of routes to the destinations using ad-hoc routing protocols. This kind of communication can only be realised if nodes follow the certain pattern. However, in reality mobile ad-hoc networks are highly unpredictable, any node can join or leave network at any time, thus making them risky for effective communication. This issue is addressed by introducing new breed of ad-hoc networking, known as opportunistic networks. Opportunistic networking is a concept that is evolved from mobile ad-hoc networking. In opportunistic networks nodes have no prior knowledge of routes to intended destinations. Any node in the network can be used as potential forwarder with the exception of taking information one step closer to intended destination. The forwarding decision is based on the information gathered from the source node or encountering node. The opportunistic forwarding can only be achieved if message forwarding is carried out in store and forward fashion. Although, opportunistic networks are more flexible than traditional MANETs, however, due to little insight of network, it poses distinct challenges such as intermittent connectivity, variable delays, short connection duration and dynamic topology. Addressing these challenges in opportunistic network is the basis for developing new and efficient protocols for information sharing. The aim of this research is to design different routing/forwarding techniques for opportunistic networks to improve the overall message delivery at destinations while keeping the communication cost very low. Some assumptions are considered to improved directivity of message flow towards intended destinations. These assumptions exploit human social relationships analogies, approximate awareness of the location of nodes in the network and use of hybrid communication by combining several routing concept to gain maximum message directivity. Enhancement in message forwarding in opportunistic networks can be achieved by targeting key nodes that show high degree of influence, popularity or knowledge inside the network. Based on this observation, this thesis presents an improved version of Lobby Influence (LI) algorithm called as Enhanced Lobby Influence (ELI). In LI, the forwarding decision is based on two important factors, popularity of node and popularity of node’s neighbour. The forwarding decision of Enhanced Lobby Influence not only depends on the intermediate node selection criteria as defined in Lobby Influence but also based on the knowledge of previously direct message delivery of intended destination. An improvement can be observed if nodes are aware of approximate position of intended destinations by some communication means such as GPS, GSM or WLAN access points. With the knowledge of nodes position in the network, high message directivity can be achieved by using simple concepts of direction vectors. Based on this observation, this research presents another new algorithm named as Location-aware opportunistic content forwarding (LOC). Last but not least, this research presents an orthodox yet unexplored approach for efficient message forwarding in Bluetooth communication environment, named as Hybrid Content Forwarding (HCF). The new approach combines the characteristics of social centrality based forwarding techniques used in opportunistic networks with traditional MANETs protocols used in Bluetooth scatternets. Simulation results show that a significant increase in delivery radio and cost reduction during content forwarding is observed by deploying these proposed algorithms. Also, comparison with existing technique shows the efficiency of using the new schemes

Bluetooth Enabled Ad-hoc Networks: Performance Evaluation of a Self-healing Scatternet Formation Protocol

Bluetooth wireless technology is a robust short-range communications system designed for low power (10 meter range) and low cost. It operates in the 2.4 GHz Industrial Scientific Medical (ISM) band and it employs two techniques for minimizing interference: a frequency hopping scheme which nominally splits the 2.400 - 2.485 GHz band in 79 frequency channels and a time division duplex (TDD) scheme which is used to switch to a new frequency channel on 625 μs boundaries. During normal operation a Bluetooth device will be active on a different frequency channel every 625 μs, thus minimizing the chances of continuous interference impacting the performance of the system. The smallest unit of a Bluetooth network is called a piconet, and can have a maximum of eight nodes. Bluetooth devices must assume one of two roles within a piconet, master or slave, where the master governs quality of service and the frequency hopping schedule within the piconet and the slave follows the master’s schedule. A piconet must have a single master and up to 7 active slaves. By allowing devices to have roles in multiple piconets through time multiplexing, i.e. slave/slave or master/slave, the Bluetooth technology allows for interconnecting multiple piconets into larger networks called scatternets. The Bluetooth technology is explored in the context of enabling ad-hoc networks. The Bluetooth specification provides flexibility in the scatternet formation protocol, outlining only the mechanisms necessary for future protocol implementations. A new protocol for scatternet formation and maintenance - mscat - is presented and its performance is evaluated using a Bluetooth simulator. The free variables manipulated in this study include device activity and the probabilities of devices performing discovery procedures. The relationship between the role a device has in the scatternet and it’s probability of performing discovery was examined and related to the scatternet topology formed. The results show that mscat creates dense network topologies for networks of 30, 50 and 70 nodes. The mscat protocol results in approximately a 33% increase in slaves/piconet and a reduction of approximately 12.5% of average roles/node. For 50 node scenarios the set of parameters which creates the best determined outcome is unconnected node inquiry probability (UP) = 10%, master node inquiry probability (MP) = 80% and slave inquiry probability (SP) = 40%. The mscat protocol extends the Bluetooth specification for formation and maintenance of scatternets in an ad-hoc network

A simple adaptive MAC scheduling scheme for bluetooth scatternet

A simple adaptive MAC scheduling algorithm, called Gateway Oriented Scatternet Scheduling (GOSS), is proposed for data exchange in a Bluetooth scatternet. Unlike the existing scheme MDRP (Maximum Distance Rendezvous Point) that has a global superframe schedule shared by all gateways, the schedule used by each gateway is individually determined. Equal partition of the superframe schedule at a gateway to each connected piconet can thus be guaranteed, which enables a more robust performance than MDRP. In addition, GOSS allows a variable sized superframe at each gateway. To maximize its performance, the frame size can be dynamically adjusted according to the scatternet topology and traffic load in every predefined adaptation interval. Simulation results show that even a static GOSS prevails over MDRP. If the adaptation technique is used, further performance enhancement can be found.published_or_final_versio