Bluetooth Tutorial : Technology Overview, Piconet and Scatternet Diagram
This comprehensive Bluetooth tutorial offers basics of technology, including key concepts such as piconets and scatternets. Bluetooth facilitates wireless communication by forming small network clusters (piconets) and combining them into larger networks (scatternets). This page explores these network structures with diagrams, providing a solid foundation for understanding Bluetooth’s capabilities.
Now-a-days bluetooth has become part of our lives due to its immense applications from audio devices which include headsets and mobile phones,home stereos,MP3 players, laptop,desktop,tablets and more. With bluetooth one can transfer data(meeting schedules,phone numbers), audio,graphic images and video from one device to the other provided they are bluetooth compliant. IEEE 802.15.1 standard describes detailed bluetooth specifications
Bluetooth Network
Bluetooth network consists of many bluetooth users. There are two types of network topologies in bluetooth viz. Piconet and scatternet. Piconet is formed by one master and one slave as well as one master and multiple slaves. There will be maximum 7 active slaves in the piconet. Hence there will be about 8 maximum devices communicating in a small network referred as piconet. Slaves can only transmit when they have been requested by the master bluetooth device. There will be about 255 slaves in parking state. Active slaves are polled by the master for transmission. Each station will get 8 bit parked address. Total 255 parked slaves are possible in one piconet. The parked station can join in just 2 ms. All the other stations can join in more time. About 10 such piconets exist in the bluetooth radio coverage area.
Combinations of multiple piconets is known as scatternet. A device can participate in multiple piconets. It will timeshare and need to be synchronized with the master of current piconet.
It supports data rate based on different versions from 720 kbps to about 24 Mbps. It will have distance coverage to about 1 to 100 meters based on power class supported on bluetooth devices.
Bluetooth technical specifications
Following are the technical features of bluetooth technology.
| Specification | feature supported |
|---|---|
| RF Frequency | 2.4GHz,READ MORE |
| Transmit power | 100 mW(Max.) 1mW(Min.),READ MORE |
| Data rate | About 1Mbps |
| Distance | 100 meter(max.), 1 meter(min.) |
| RF Bandwidth | 220 KHz to about 1MHz |
| Modulation type | Gaussian FSK (GFSK) |
| Number of RF carriers | 79(max.), 23(min.) |
| Topology | upto 7 links in a star configuration |
| hopping rate | 1600 hops per second |
| Access type | FH-TDD-TDMA |
Bluetooth Applications
Following are few of the many bluetooth applications:
• One can receive and make call using bluetooth compliant wireless headset.
• Operate computer using mouse/keyboard and take print outs wirelessly eliminating cables.
• Home automation
Conclusion
A thorough understanding of Bluetooth technology and its network topologies viz. piconets and scatternets enables developers to create scalable and efficient wireless communication systems. Use this tutorial and links provided as a guide to mastering Bluetooth's network architecture, allowing you to implement effective Bluetooth solutions for various applications.
BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) Links
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BLE advertising and data channels >>
BLE protocol stack architecture >>
BLE connection process >>
BLE advertising and data packet formats >>