Evaluation and accelerating Bluetooth device discovery

Abstract

As a promising short-range wireless communication technology with the characteristics of interference resilience and power efficiency, Bluetooth is a ubiquitous candidate for wireless sensor network. The device discovery time of Bluetooth is the key for fast connection establishment, and hence successful scatternet formation and maintenance, which are required for wireless sensor networks. The frequency hopping technique used in Bluetooth and the asymmetric device discovery in Inquiry procedure result in undiscovered devices even within radio range. In this paper, we address the problem of device discovery in the context of scatternet formation. We evaluate the factors that affect device discovery process when multiple Bluetooth devices exist within radio range and wish to form a scatternet. Then we introduce a modified inquiry scheme using extended ID packet to accelerate the device discovery process. Simulation results show that our scheme leads to better performance for Bluetooth device discovery.