The Intel Mote is a new sensor node platform with improved radio bandwidth and reliability due to the usage of Bluetooth radio. The connection-oriented nature of Bluetooth raises the issues of effective multi-hop network (scatternet) formation and maintenance that network and routing layer must address on top of the TinyOS abstractions. The hop distance and wireless link quality pose major challenges to multi-hop network performance, especially the connection-oriented networks such as Bluetooth scatternet. In this paper, we present a metric-based scatternet formation algorithm for the Intel Mote, which can optimize the Bluetooth network formation from the hop distance and link quality perspectives. In addition, a smart repair mechanism is proposed to deal with link/node failure and recover the network connectivity promptly with low overhead. The experiments with the Intel Mote platform demonstrate the effectiveness of the optimizations, which make the platform more powerful

The Intel mote is a new sensor node platform motivated by several design goals: increased CPU performance, improved radio bandwidth and reliability, and the usage of commercial off-the-shelf components in order to maintain cost-effectiveness. This new platform is built around an integrated wireless microcontroller consisting of an ARM*7 core, a Bluetooth radio, SRAM and FLASH memory, as well as various I/O options. The Intel Mote software architecture is based on an ARM port of TinyOS. Networking and routing layers have been created on top of the TinyOS base to provide Bluetooth-based multi-hop functionality. The network is self-organizing on startup and has mechanisms to repair failed links and circumvent failed nodes. A reliable high bandwidth streaming transport layer has also been created. The Intel Mote was deployed in an equipment monitoring application using industrial vibration sensors. This application was chosen since it benefits from the increased platform capabilities and network bandwidth of the Intel Mote platform. The paper presents a detailed analysis of the observed network operation, packet transfer rates, and power consumption.

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The Intel Mote is a new sensor node platform motivated by several design goals: increased CPU performance, improved radio bandwidth and reliability and the usage of commercial off-the-shelf components in order to maintain cost-effectiveness. This new platform is built around an integrated wireless microcontroller consisting of an ARM*7 core, a Bluetooth* radio, RAM and FLASH memory as well as various I/O options. Due to the connection-oriented nature of Bluetooth, a new network formation and maintenance algorithms that are optimized for this protocol have been created. In particular, the "scatternet" mode of Bluetooth has been successfully adapted to form networks comprised of multiple piconet.