Networking non-PC devices using BlueSky and Bluetooth

Pravin Bhagwat
Mobile Networking Group
IBM T. J. Watson research center

2:00pm Friday October 22, 1999
Lecture Hall V, ECS

The BlueSky project aims at providing a low-cost, low-power, indoor wireless networking solution for non-PC devices such as palmtop computers, cell phones, digital cameras, and computer peripherals. In this talk, I will describe our design rationale and implementation experience of building two variants of the BlueSky system.

The first BlueSky prototype has been built using a radio module from a cordless phone. Its cost, range of communication, and power consumption are comparable to a cordless phone. Users can plug-in the BlueSky adapter into the serial port of their palmtop devices and access networking services over the cordless link. An attractive feature of the system is that it enables MobileIP style seamless roaming without requiring any changes to the networking stack of palmtop devices.

The next version of the BlueSky system is being built on top Bluetooth. Bluetooth is an emerging, low-power, short range RF wireless technology with the primary objective of eliminating cables between devices. In principle, using Bluetooth radio modules it should be possible to form an ad hoc network of devices, but the techniques for forming such networks are largely unknown today. I will present our initial results which include a technique for characterizing Bluetooth network topologies, algorithms for self-organization, and a method for routing over Bluetooth ad hoc networks. I will conclude the talk with a discussion of open problems in this area.