Monitoring Bluetooth network topology

Abstract

The Bluetooth technology is starting to be common in accessories like cellular phones and personal data assistants. Although Bluetooth was started as a project to replace the cables between cellular phones and its accessories, it is now seen as a more generic way of replacing cables between all devices. With Bluetooth, devices can exchange data without cables at distances up to 100 meters, and the user does not need to have the correct cable and plug to connect and exchange information between devices.

While the Bluetooth specification have advantageous characteristics like low power consumption and resistance to interference, the Bluetooth network topology can be difficult to follow. Bluetooth devices can be set up to initiate connections without user interaction,and devices can be connected to multiple devices at the same time. This makes it hard to know what the Bluetooth network topology looks like at a given time, and applications may not utilize the topology if there is no way to obtain information about it.

To solve this we introduce the concept of a Bluetooth network topology monitor. The monitor should be able to detect an initial network topology and changes that later occur in that topology. We first give a detailed description of Bluetooth and related technology so we can explore various methods the monitor can be constructed.