Measurement Campaign on Connectivity of Mesh Networks formed by Mobile Devices

This paper reports the results of a measurement campaign on the connectivity level of mobile devices using Bluetooth (BT) to form cooperative mobile mesh networks. Such mobile mesh networks composed of mobile devices are the basis for any peer-to-peer communication like wireless grids or social networks. The results represent typically worst-case situations, as more and more people tend to switch off their short-range technology due to the battery consumption and the possible attacks. We explore typical public places like airports, convention centers, shopping malls and bars and extract from them some statistics of the size of the mesh network and type of constituent nodes. This information is essential for analyzing and devising cooperative strategies among the terminals of mesh networks in different scenarios.