A scatternet is a type of ad hoc computer network consisting of two or more piconets. The terms "scatternet" and "piconet" are typically applied to Bluetooth wireless technology.
A scatternet is a type of ad hoc computer network consisting of two or more piconets. The terms "scatternet" and "piconet" are typically applied to Bluetooth wireless technology.
A piconet is the type of connection that is formed between two or more Bluetooth-enabled devices such as modern cell phones. Bluetooth enabled devices are "peer units" in that they are able to act as either master or slave. However, when a piconet is formed between two or more devices, one device takes the role of the 'master', and all other devices assume a 'slave' role for synchronization reasons. Piconets have a 7 member address space (3 bits, with zero reserved for broadcast), which limits the maximum size of a piconet to 8 devices, i.e. 1 master and 7 slaves.
A scatternet is a number of interconnected piconets that supports communication between more than 8 devices. Scatternets can be formed when a member of one piconet (either the master or one of the slaves) elects to participate as a slave in a second, separate piconet. The device participating in both piconets can relay data between members of both ad hoc networks. However, the basic Bluetooth protocol does not support this relaying - the host software of each device would need to manage it. Using this approach, it is possible to join together numerous piconets into a large scatternet, and to expand the physical size of the network beyond Bluetooth's limited range.
Currently there are very few actual implementations of scatternets due to limitations of Bluetooth and the MAC address protocol. However, there is a growing body of research being conducted with the goal of developing algorithms to efficiently form scatternets.
Scatternets have the potential to bring the interconnectivity of the Internet to the physical world through wireless devices. A number of companies have attempted to launch social networking and dating services that leverage early scatternet implementations (see Bluedating). Scatternets can also be used to enable ad hoc communication and interaction between autonomous robots and other devices.
Several papers exist that propose algorithms for scatternet formation, [1] and many different approaches have been simulated in both academic and corporate R&D environments. Some early experiments with large scatternets can be found at ETH Zurich [2] in the BTnode project. [3]
In 2008, a student at University College Cork, Ireland, developed a scatternet-based application in the Java programming language, using the JSR-82 library. [4] This application's main purpose is to facilitate parallel computations over Bluetooth scatternets, using an MPI-style message passing paradigm. Although it only runs on the emulation environment provided by Sun's Wireless Toolkit, it is capable of creating a scatternet of up to 15 devices and routing a message through the network.
In 2006, a student at the University of Technology, Iraq, developed an on-demand peer-to-peer scatternet routing algorithm and protocol, [5] with Java ME application based on JSR-82 library. This application was tested successfully on several real life Java-enabled mobile phones, and is capable of building large scatternets, but its only practical when routes are less than 3 nodes long due to Bluetooth's speed.
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limited to 2.5 milliwatts, giving it a very short range of up to 10 metres (33 ft). It employs UHF radio waves in the ISM bands, from 2.402 GHz to 2.48 GHz. It is mainly used as an alternative to wire connections, to exchange files between nearby portable devices and connect cell phones and music players with wireless headphones.
A personal area network (PAN) is a computer network for interconnecting electronic devices within an individual person's workspace. A PAN provides data transmission among devices such as computers, smartphones, tablets and personal digital assistants. PANs can be used for communication among the personal devices themselves, or for connecting to a higher level network and the Internet where one master device takes up the role as gateway.
Link-state routing protocols are one of the two main classes of routing protocols used in packet switching networks for computer communications, the others being distance-vector routing protocols. Examples of link-state routing protocols include Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) and Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS).
In computer networking, a wireless access point, or more generally just access point (AP), is a networking hardware device that allows other Wi-Fi devices to connect to a wired network. As a standalone device, the AP may have a wired connection to a router, but, in a wireless router, it can also be an integral component of the router itself. An AP is differentiated from a hotspot which is a physical location where Wi-Fi access is available.
Zigbee is an IEEE 802.15.4-based specification for a suite of high-level communication protocols used to create personal area networks with small, low-power digital radios, such as for home automation, medical device data collection, and other low-power low-bandwidth needs, designed for small scale projects which need wireless connection. Hence, Zigbee is a low-power, low data rate, and close proximity wireless ad hoc network.
A piconet is an ad hoc network that links a wireless user group of devices using Bluetooth technology protocols. A piconet consists of two or more devices occupying the same physical channel. It allows one master device to interconnect with up to seven active slave devices. Up to 255 further slave devices can be inactive, or parked, which the master device can bring into active status at any time, but an active station must go into parked first.
A wireless mesh network (WMN) is a communications network made up of radio nodes organized in a mesh topology. It can also be a form of wireless ad hoc network.
A mesh network is a local area network topology in which the infrastructure nodes connect directly, dynamically and non-hierarchically to as many other nodes as possible and cooperate with one another to efficiently route data to and from clients.
The Optimized Link State Routing Protocol (OLSR) is an IP routing protocol optimized for mobile ad hoc networks, which can also be used on other wireless ad hoc networks. OLSR is a proactive link-state routing protocol, which uses hello and topology control (TC) messages to discover and then disseminate link state information throughout the mobile ad hoc network. Individual nodes use this topology information to compute next hop destinations for all nodes in the network using shortest hop forwarding paths.
Java APIs for Bluetooth Wireless Technology (JABWT) is a J2ME specification for APIs that allows Java MIDlets running on embedded devices such as mobile phones to use Bluetooth for short-range wireless communication. JABWT was developed as JSR-82 under the Java Community Process.
Delay-tolerant networking (DTN) is an approach to computer network architecture that seeks to address the technical issues in heterogeneous networks that may lack continuous network connectivity. Examples of such networks are those operating in mobile or extreme terrestrial environments, or planned networks in space.
Flooding is used in computer networks routing algorithm in which every incoming packet is sent through every outgoing link except the one it arrived on.
Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) are created by applying the principles of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) – the spontaneous creation of a wireless network of mobile devices – to the domain of vehicles. VANETs were first mentioned and introduced in 2001 under "car-to-car ad-hoc mobile communication and networking" applications, where networks can be formed and information can be relayed among cars. It was shown that vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-roadside communications architectures will co-exist in VANETs to provide road safety, navigation, and other roadside services. VANETs are a key part of the intelligent transportation systems (ITS) framework. Sometimes, VANETs are referred as Intelligent Transportation Networks. They are understood as having evolved into a broader "Internet of vehicles". which itself is expected to ultimately evolve into an "Internet of autonomous vehicles".
A wireless ad hoc network (WANET) or mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a decentralized type of wireless network. The network is ad hoc because it does not rely on a pre-existing infrastructure, such as routers or wireless access points. Instead, each node participates in routing by forwarding data for other nodes. The determination of which nodes forward data is made dynamically on the basis of network connectivity and the routing algorithm in use.
In computing, Microsoft's Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 introduced in 2007/2008 a new networking stack named Next Generation TCP/IP stack, to improve on the previous stack in several ways. The stack includes native implementation of IPv6, as well as a complete overhaul of IPv4. The new TCP/IP stack uses a new method to store configuration settings that enables more dynamic control and does not require a computer restart after a change in settings. The new stack, implemented as a dual-stack model, depends on a strong host-model and features an infrastructure to enable more modular components that one can dynamically insert and remove.
ANT is a proprietary multicast wireless sensor network technology designed and marketed by ANT Wireless. It provides personal area networks (PANs), primarily for activity trackers. ANT was introduced by Dynastream Innovations in 2003, followed by the low-power standard ANT+ in 2004, before Dynastream was bought by Garmin in 2006.
IEEE 802.11s is a wireless local area network (WLAN) standard and an IEEE 802.11 amendment for mesh networking, defining how wireless devices can interconnect to create a wireless LAN mesh network, which may be used for relatively fixed topologies and wireless ad hoc networks. The IEEE 802.11s task group drew upon volunteers from university and industry to provide specifications and possible design solutions for wireless mesh networking. As a standard, the document was iterated and revised many times prior to finalization.
MyriaNed is a wireless sensor network (WSN) platform developed by DevLab. It uses an epidemic communication style based on standard radio broadcasting. This approach reflects the way humans interact, which is called gossiping. Messages are sent periodically and received by adjoining neighbours. Each message is repeated and duplicated towards all nodes that span the network; it spreads like a virus.
Smartphone ad hoc networks are wireless ad hoc networks that use smartphones. Once embedded with ad hoc networking technology, a group of smartphones in close proximity can together create an ad hoc network. Smart phone ad hoc networks use the existing hardware in commercially available smartphones to create peer-to-peer networks without relying on cellular carrier networks, wireless access points, or traditional network infrastructure. Wi-Fi SPANs use the mechanism behind Wi-Fi ad-hoc mode, which allows phones to talk directly among each other, through a transparent neighbor and route discovery mechanism. SPANs differ from traditional hub and spoke networks, such as Wi-Fi Direct, in that they support multi-hop routing and relays and there is no notion of a group leader, so peers can join and leave at will without destroying the network.