A Servey on Bluetooth Scatternet Formation

A Bluetooth ad hoc network can be formed by interconnecting piconets into scatternets. The constraints and properties of Bluetooth scatternets present special challenges in forming an ad hoc network efficiently. This paper, the research contributions in this arena are brought together, to give an overview of the state-of-the-art.

Simply stated, Bluetooth is a wireless communication protocol. Since it’s a communication protocol, you can use Bluetooth to communicate to other Bluetooth-enabled devices. In this sense, Bluetooth is like any other communication protocol that you use every day, such as HTTP, FTP, SMTP, or IMAP. Bluetooth has a client-server architecture; the one that initiates the connection is the client, and the one who receives the connection is the server. Bluetooth is a great protocol for wireless communication because it’s capable of transmitting data at nearly 1MB/s, while consuming 1/100th of the power of Wi-Fi. We discuss criteria for different types of scatternets and establish general models of scatternet topologies. Then we review the state-of-the-art approaches with respect to Bluetooth scatternet formation and contrast them.