A Distributed Algorithm for Mesh Scatternet Formation in Bluetooth Networks

Bluetooth is a promising new wireless technology that enables portable devices to form short-range multi-hop wireless ad-hoc networks. Bluetooth Scatternet Formation is one of the challenges that needs to be resolved. In this paper, we present a new, distributed Bluetooth mesh scatternet formation algorithm. The generated scatternet is a connected mesh which, in addition to meeting the minimum criteria of reachability, provides many desirable properties such as small network diameter, multiple paths between any pair of nodes, low node contention, easier routing and scheduling. The simulations results for the experiments conducted in Blueware simulator [3] are also provided. The time required for mesh scatternet formation is seen to be increasing logarithmically with increasing number of devices. We compare the scatternet formation time and number of piconets generated with that of TSF. We find that in comparison to TSF, with a slight increase in scatternet formation time, we gain by reducing the number of piconets significantly.