An architecture, topology and performance of the multihop Bluetooth network (MBNET)

We propose a novel Bluetooth network architecture, called multihop Bluetooth network (MBNET). In the MBNET, one of the nodes is the base station. Each node is assumed to have two Bluetooth devices. The fundamental difference of MBNET from a conventional Bluetooth network architecture, called scatternet, is that no Bluetooth device belongs to multiple piconets. Thus, there is no piconet-switch overhead. The basic design principle of the MBNET topology is that each node should have at least two disjointed paths to the base station. We argue the topology optimization of the MBNET, from perspectives such as performance and reliability, and present several topology design guidelines using simple examples. In MBNET, the base station is in charge of designing MBNET topology and needs to obtain the entire node information. We briefly describe a node information management method, which is composed of hierarchical neighbor discovery protocol, neighbor information reporting protocol, and in-service neighbor discovery protocol. We present an algorithm to construct the topology of MBNET and evaluate its performance. It is shown that the proposed algorithm has a satisfactory performance in providing every node two disjointed paths to the base station.