What is scatternet?

A scatternet is a type of Bluetooth network that is formed by the interconnection between two or more individual Bluetooth networks, called piconets. The devices in the scattered should be Bluetooth enabled so that they can communicate wirelessly over a short range of within 10m radius using ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio waves.

In a scatternet, there must be at least two piconets. The nodes in a scatternet may be of three types −

• Master Node − It is the primary station in each piconet that controls the communication within that piconet.

• Slave Node − A slave is a secondary station in a piconet that communicates with the master for data transfer. There can be a maximum of 7 slaves in a piconet.

• Bridge Node − It is a node in a piconet, whether a master or a slave, that acts as a slave in another piconet. A bridge connects the individual piconets to form the scatternet.

The following diagram shows a scatternet formed by two piconets. Here, the bridge is a slave node in both the piconets, that communicates with the individual master nodes of the connected network.