Bluetooth has become very popular owing to the fact that it is a promising ad-hoc networking technology for short ranges. Although construction and operation of piconets is well defined in Bluetooth specifications, there is no unique standard for scatternet formation and operation. In this paper, we propose a distributed Bluetooth scatternet formation algorithm based on device and link characteristics (SF-DeviL). SF-DeviL handles energy efficiency using class devices and the received signal strength. SF-DeviL forms scatternets that are robust to position changes and battery depletions. © 2003 IEEE.