Relay Node Selection in Bluetooth Mesh Networks

Bluetooth Mesh (BM) is a new communication protocol for the Internet of Things that is used to establish many-to-many device communication. BM allows for easy creation of large connection-less mesh networks using a controlled-flooding propagation mechanism, in which relay nodes broadcast the received messages to all neighbors until the message reaches its destination. This model, however, makes BM networks susceptible to broadcast-storm effects, which can hinder the scalability of the protocol. Opportune relay node selection is therefore of critical importance to control network traffic and improve network performance. This paper focuses on the choice of relay selection algorithms suitable for BM networks. In particular, different centralized, decentralized, and localized algorithms based on Connected Dominating Set (CDS) are evaluated and compared.