Differentiate between piconet and scatternet

Let us understand the concept of piconet and scatternet before learning the differences between them.

Piconet

A piconet is a network created by connecting multiple wireless devices using Bluetooth technology. In a piconet network a master device exists, this master device cm gets connected to 7 more slave devices.

It includes the master the number of devices that can be connected is limited to 8. Due to less number of devices active at a time the usage of channel band width is not more.

Number of devices that can be connected is limited to 8. It is applicable for devices belonging to small areas.

Given below is the diagram of piconet −

Scatternet

It is a network which connects multiple piconets using Bluetooth and it acts as a master and another type of piconet acts as a slave. It has more than 6 devices that can be connected.

Multiple devices are active, so there is an effective use of channel bandwidth.

It is a connection of multiple piconets therefore it is applicable for devices belonging to large areas.

Given below is the diagram of scatternet −

Differences

The major differences between piconet and scatternet are as follows −

Piconet	Scatternet
Piconet is the type of connection formed between 2 or more Bluetooth enabled devices.	between 2 or more Bluetooth enabled devices. It is a type of ad-hoc computer network consisting of 2 or more piconets.
It supports maximum 8 nodes i.e,1 master & 7 slaves	It supports more than 8 nodes.
It Allows less efficient use of Bluetooth channel bandwidth. It is usually applied to Bluetooth devices. It is a smaller coverage area	It Allows more efficient use of Bluetooth channel bandwidth. It is applied to Bluetooth devices too. It is a larger coverage area.