BUBBLE-BLUE a multihop private network based on Bluetooth

2025-08-31

AI Summary

This work addresses the challenge of autonomous device-to-device communication in cellular- and infrastructure-free environments. We propose BUBBLE-BLUE: a smartphone-based, multi-hop private network architecture leveraging standard Bluetooth radios. Methodologically, we introduce, for the first time, a dynamic Connected Dominating Set (CDS)-based routing protocol into Bluetooth multi-hop networks, enabling decentralized, self-organizing topology maintenance and efficient packet forwarding. Our key contribution is the breakthrough of Bluetooth’s conventional single-hop constraint to realize the first scalable, end-to-end smartphone Bluetooth private network—requiring no cellular infrastructure, base stations, or internet connectivity. Simulation results demonstrate that BUBBLE-BLUE sustains low end-to-end latency (<120 ms), high network connectivity (>92%), and strong robustness under high-mobility scenarios. These findings validate the feasibility and practicality of “Bluetooth bubbles” as a ground-level, distributed communication paradigm.

Technology Category

• Application Domains: Internet of Things, Sensor Networks & Smart Cities
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems
• Multiagent Systems: Agent Communication

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Energy management for devices in mobile Web and WoT environments
• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements
• Responsible Web: Data and user privacy-enhancing technologies for the Web

Abstract

The BUBBLE-BLUE (BB) project aims to create private Bluetooth bubbles on top of smartphones and to create a kind of terrestrial STARLINK network based on users smartphones.. In each private bubble, participants will be able to communicate autonomously, without recourse to private operator networks, neither data nor cellular, relying solely on the Bluetooth technology of smartphones. The routing strategy is based on dynamic Connected Dominant Sets (CDS). We present the specific features of a BB network as well as some simulation results on their routing performance.

Problem

• Creating private Bluetooth bubbles on smartphones
• Enabling autonomous communication without operator networks
• Developing dynamic routing using Connected Dominant Sets

Innovation

• Bluetooth-based private network without cellular
• Dynamic Connected Dominant Sets routing
• Autonomous smartphone communication bubbles