Ring of Masters (ROM): A new ring structure for Bluetooth scatternets with dynamic routing and adaptive scheduling schemes

Abstract

This paper attempts to address the scatternet problem in Bluetooth through a comprehensive approach. We propose a new decentralized ring structure to combat the formation of traffic bottlenecks. The adopted construction protocol ensures flexibility of node selection and a good level of fault tolerance. The routing protocol combines both simplicity and robustness by taking advantage of the ring structure and relying on the collective memory of piconets to make forwarding and discarding decisions. The intra- and inter-piconet scheduling algorithm, called ROM adaptive scheduling (RAS), dynamically allocates time slots and is responsive to the varying workload conditions. We demonstrate, through analysis and simulations, that the various components of ROM yield a system that has good performance in terms of throughput, latency, delivery, and link utilization. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.