A Bluetooth scatternet reformation algorithm

Abstract

Bluetooth is reputed as a wireless networking technology supplying ad-hoc networks between digital devices. In particular, Bluetooth scatternet is an essential part of dynamic ad-hoc networks. Yet, there have not been sufficient researches performed on scatternet environment. This paper proposes a scatternet reformation algorithm for ad-hoc networks for instances where some nodes enter or leave the scatternet. The proposed algorithm is a general algorithm that can be applied to many types of Bluetooth scatter-net regardless of the topology. The proposed algorithm is made for two reformation cases, i.e., nodes leaving and nodes entering. For the reformation when nodes leave a scatternet, the recovery node vector (RNV) algorithm is proposed. It has short reformation setup delay because the process involves a single page process (not including inquiry process). For the reformation when nodes enter a scatternet, the entry node algorithm is proposed. This is a simple and easily implementable algorithm. In this paper, real hardware experiments are carried out to evaluate the algorithm's performance where the reformation setup delay, the reformation setup probability and the data transfer rate are measured. The proposed algorithm has shown improvement in the reformation setup delay and probability.