Bluetooth-based device-to-device routing protocol for self-organized mobile-phone mesh network

Abstract

The bluetooth technology provides a point-to-point communication interface to mobile phones and other electronic devices, which can be used to form a selforganized ad hoc mesh network consists of mobile phones. In such a self-organized mesh network, the data packets are not transferred by traditional telecommunication backbone network but through bluetooth-based hop-by-hop routing among mesh nodes in the network. Such an ad hoc mesh network may find a wide span of application scenarios where access to backbone network infrastructure is not available, yet it needs an efficient routing protocol to provide a timely transmission mechanism for data packets to reach their destination even under situations when network topology is in constant changes due to mobile node's movement. In the bluetooth-based device-to-device routing protocol (BDRP) presented in this paper, we propose several key designs as processed data table, node exclusion by packet and source control routing to provide an end-to-end packet transmission solution in a dynamically changing topology with constraints on network bandwidth, battery power, and storage space on a mobile device. The processed data table and node exclusion by packet mechanisms contribute to eliminating a great number of nonuseful duplicate packets in routing path, and the source control routing algorithm implemented with a cross-layer packet retransmission process provides a fast and low-overhead routing policy and an assurance to packet reaching destination. In the simulation experiment conducted BDRP demonstrates its effectiveness and efficiency in eliminating undesirable duplicate packets and adaptability to constant topological changes. The performance comparison experiment indicates that the BDRP outperforms the optimized link state routing (OLSR) protocol in packet arrival rate, particularly under situations when mobile nodes are in fast moving mode, yet manages to maintain the same level of transmission delay as OLSR's even with the packet retransmission process. The work presented in this paper provides a key technology for the applications of Bluetooth mobile phone mesh network in a larger geographic area and a broader application domain.