Topology formation in mesh networks considering role suitability

The paper studies various mesh topology formation techniques that can be used to aid the development of large-scale capillary networks. The work focuses on how mesh networks can be established using Bluetooth Low Energy exploiting the heterogeneous characteristics of the devices in the network. A novel algorithm called Topology Formation considering Role Suitability (TFRS) is proposed aiming to maximize the network lifetime. The algorithm employs a newly introduced metric called role suitability metric (RSM) to assign the best role among master, relay and slave to a participating device. The RSM metric is computed from device characteristics including, but not limited to, energy, mobility and computational capability. We use system-level simulation to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm against a reference under a homogeneous deployment scenario consisting of heterogeneous devices. Results show that the network lifetime can be improved significantly when the topology is formed considering the device characteristics for both master role selection and relay selection. TFRS can achieve 20% to 40% higher network lifetime depending on the deployment characteristics over the reference algorithm.