Multihop scatternet formation for Bluetooth networks

This paper describes a new protocol for the establishment of multihop ad hoc networks based on Bluetooth devices. The proposed solution is specification compatible, and achieves the following desirable properties, only a few of which are available in previous solutions. The protocol is executed at each node with no prior knowledge of the network topology, thus being fully distributed. The selection of the Bluetooth masters is driven by the suitability of a node to be the "best fit" for serving as a master. The generated topology (a scatternet, according to the Bluetooth terminology) is a connected mesh with multiple paths between any pair of nodes, thus achieving robustness. In contrast to existing protocols, the proposed solution does not assume any designated device to start the scatternet formation process and it is multihop in the precise sense that there is no requirement for each node to be in the transmission range of all the other nodes (one-hop networks).