Cross-Layer-Based Adaptive Traffic Control Protocol for Bluetooth Wireless Networks

Bluetooth technology is particularly designed for a wireless personal area network that is low cost and less energy consuming. Efficient transmission between different Bluetooth nodes depends on network formation. An inefficient Bluetooth topology may create a bottleneck and a delay in the network when data is routed. To overcome the congestion problem of Bluetooth networks, a Cross-layer-based Adaptive Traffic Control (CATC) protocol is proposed in this paper. The proposed protocol is working on backup device utilization and network restructuring. The proposed CATC is divided into two parts; the first part is based on intra-piconet traffic control, while the second part is based on inter-piconet traffic control. The proposed CATC protocol controls the traffic load on the master node by network restructuring and the traffic load of the bridge node by activating a Fall-Back Bridge (FBB). During the piconet restructuring, the CATC performs the Piconet Formation within Piconet (PFP) and Scatternet Formation within Piconet (SFP). The PFP reconstructs a new piconet in the same piconet for the devices which are directly within the radio range of each other. The SFP reconstructs the scatternet within the same piconet if the nodes are not within the radio range. Simulation results are proof that the proposed CATC improves the overall performance and reduces control overhead in a Bluetooth network. Keywords—Bluetooth; scatternet; multi-layer; resolving bottleneck; reducing control overhead component