Analyzing the Device Discovery Phase of Bluetooth Scatternet Formation Algorithms

We study in this paper the impact of the modifications introduced in version 1.2 of the Bluetooth specifications on Bluetooth scatternet formation (BSF) algorithms. Up to now, the effect of these modifications on BSF algorithms had not been analyzed. We show that: 1) Bluetooth ver1.2 and upward have a major positive effect on static BSF algorithms (i.e. those which require an external device discovery phase). We conducted some experiments on a common device discovery technique for static BSF algorithms and compared its performance using Ver1.2 and Ver1.1 (the latter is used in most BSF studies). We found that this technique, using ver1.2, generates a connected topology about 3.5 times faster than it does using ver1.1. It also discovers about 20% more edges. 2) Dynamic algorithms, on the other hand, are not affected by these modifications. This will be proven using some experiments and some analytical arguments. These results give more applicability to static BSF algorithms and call for more research on dynamic BSF algorithms.