A Hybrid Mesh-Ring Topology for Bluetooth Networks

In this paper, a Hybrid Mesh-Ring (HMR) algorithm is proposed for Bluetooth networks. Three stages are proposed to determine the optimal configuration of the mesh-ring network. Firstly, a designated root advertises and discovers its neighboring nodes. Secondly, a scatternet criterion is built to compute the minimum number of piconets and to distribute the connection information for piconet and scatternet. Finally, a systematic peak-search model is designed to determine the optimal mesh-ring configuration for various sizes of networks. This model includes three functional blocks: a topology formation block generates the mesh-ring topology, a routing efficiency block computes the routing performance, and an optimum decision block introduces a decision-making criterion to determine the optimum number of mesh links. Simulation results demonstrate that the optimal configuration can be obtained and the proposed HMR topology outperforms the conventional ring-based method in terms of throughput performance for Bluetooth networks.