Bluetooth PAN and External IP Networks

This paper discusses how ad-hoc Personal Area Network (PAN) based on Bluetooth technology may connect to external networks. We assume that the Bluetooth network (piconet) is formed by the automatic SAPIFO procedure [4], that one or more piconet devices have access to external networks, and that IPv4 is used for external communication. Bluetooth have specified a PAN profile[2] for IP over Bluetooth, which uses BNEP[3] (Bluetooth Network Encapsulation Protocol) to emulate an Ethernet segments between master and slave. If the master has an additional Ethernet connection to an external network, it uses the NAP (Network Access Point) role to interconnect the Ethernet segments and form a piconet. If the master has no external Ethernet connections, on the other hand, it uses the GN (Group ad-hoc Network) role. The Ethernet segments are connected using functions from 802.1d [10]. This paper proposes definition of a new role, which accommodates more than one network access points by combining NAP and GN.