Improved Bluetooth network formation (IBNF)

Bluetooth ad hoc networks are formed by interconnecting Bluetooth enabled devices into piconets, and by interconnecting piconets into a scatternet. The existing protocols for scatternet formation expect all devices to be within transmission range of each other and there are no provisions yet for dynamic network reconfiguration in the process of devices joining or leaving the scatternet. We present a new distributed scatternet formation protocol designed to work in situations where all the devices are not necessarily within transmission range of each other. The protocol is a fault tolerant, semi proactive, randomized distributed protocol that adapts to the network topology and maintains connectivity within the scatternet, even under highly dynamic conditions without much reconfiguration.