SF-DeviL: an algorithm for energy-efficient bluetooth scatternet formation and maintenance

Bluetooth is a short-range ad hoc networking technology, which enables formation of inexpensive personal area networks with low power consumption. Using Bluetooth technology, a small number of closely located devices can be interconnected within a piconet. Building larger ad hoc networks is possible by interconnecting multiple piconets to form a scatternet. As the Bluetooth topology grows from isolated piconets to a scatternet, energy-efficiency becomes a critical issue since additional power is consumed for multi-hop routing. A scatternet should be formed in such a way that batteries of mobile devices are efficiently used in order to lengthen scatternet lifetime.

We discuss the problem of energy-efficient topology construction and maintenance for Bluetooth scatternets. An energy-efficient, distributed Bluetooth Scatternet Formation algorithm based on Device and Link characteristics (SF-DeviL) is presented. SF-DeviL forms scatternets with tree topologies and increases battery lifetimes of devices by using device types, battery levels and received signal strengths. The topology is dynamically reconfigured in SF-DeviL so that energy efficiency is maintained during the lifetime of the scatternet. It is shown through simulations that even without performing reconfiguration the network lifetime is increased by at least 229% compared to LMS algorithm and increased by at least 10% compared to BlueMesh algorithm in heterogeneous networks.