Bluetooth Scatternet Using an Ad Hoc Bridge Node Routing Protocal for Outdoor Distance Education

Abstract

In recent years, the prevalence of Internet and wireless technology has promoted mobile communications as a major research area. For the future distance education purposes (Instructional Technology Council), to be able to access the course materials anytime and everywhere will become a key issue. Especially when students are out of classroom and are within a museum or a field investigation process, using Ad Hoc mechanism to access the real time brief or introduction can definitely improve their learning interests greatly. One of the topics is IEEE802.11, which includes the wireless LAN and mobile ad hoc network (MANET) infrastructure (Perkins, 2000). MANET has no fixed infrastructure, but capable of dynamic changing network architectures, such as PDAs, cellular phones, and mobile computers. Bluetooth (The Official Bluetooth SIG) possesses a smaller radio range, low power, and low costs. The Bluetooth Scatternet is a specific case of MANET (IETF MANET Working Group). In this chapter, we propose a bridge node routing protocol (BNRP) based on a revised distributed topology construction protocol (DTCP), which a shortcut mechanism is added into it for better performance. The BNRP uses bridge nodes to preserve effective transmissions and achieve better Bluetooth Scatternet performance, and it can apply for outdoor distance education environment anytime and everywhere.