A piconet is an

ad hoc network An ad hoc network refers to technologies that allow network communications on an ad hoc basis. Associated technologies include: *Wireless ad hoc network *Mobile ad hoc network *Vehicular ad hoc network **Intelligent vehicular ad hoc network * Protoc ...

that links a

wireless user group Wireless community networks (WCNs) or wireless community projects or simply community networks, are non-centralized, self-managed and collaborative networks organized in a grassroots fashion by communities, NGO's and cooperatives in order to prov ...

of devices using

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

technology protocols. A piconet consists of two or more devices occupying the same physical channel (synchronized to a common clock and hopping sequence). It allows one ''

master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

'' device to interconnect with up to seven active ''

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

'' devices. Up to 255 further slave devices can be inactive, or ''parked'', which the master device can bring into active status at any time, but an active station must go into parked first. Some examples of piconets include a

cell phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

connected to a computer, a laptop and a Bluetooth-enabled

digital camera A digital camera is a camera that captures photographs in digital memory. Most cameras produced today are digital, largely replacing those that capture images on photographic film. Digital cameras are now widely incorporated into mobile device ...

, or several

PDA PDA may refer to: Science and technology * Patron-driven acquisition, a mechanism for libraries to purchase books *Personal digital assistant, a mobile device * Photodiode array, a type of detector * Polydiacetylenes, a family of conducting poly ...

s that are connected to each other.

Overview

A group of devices are connected via Bluetooth technology in an ad hoc fashion. A piconet starts with two connected devices, and may grow to eight connected devices. Bluetooth communication always designates one of the Bluetooth devices as a main controlling unit or ''master'' unit. Other devices that follow the master unit are ''slave'' units. This allows the Bluetooth system to be non-contention based (no collisions). This means that after a Bluetooth device has been added to the piconet, each device is assigned a specific time period to transmit and they do not collide or overlap with other units operating within the same piconet. Piconet range varies according to the class of the Bluetooth device. Data transfer rates vary between about 200 and 2100

kilobit The kilobit is a multiple of the unit bit for digital information or computer storage. The prefix ''kilo-'' (symbol k) is defined in the International System of Units (SI) as a multiplier of 103 (1 thousand), and therefore, :1 kilobit = = 1000& ...

s per second. Because the Bluetooth system hops over 79 channels, the probability of interfering with another Bluetooth system is less than 1.5%. This allows several Bluetooth piconets to operate in the same area at the same time with minimal interference.

Overview

See also

Further reading