Handoff support for mobility with IP over Bluetooth

The BLUEPAC (BLUEtooth Public ACcess) concepts present ideas for enabling mobile Bluetooth devices to access local area networks in public areas, such as airports, train stations and supermarkets. The proposed protocols support mobility on OSI layer 3. This paper concentrates on the necessary layer 2 protocol concepts for supporting mobility and handoffs between different access points. Furthermore, we present the necessary adaptations for allowing IP datagrams to be exchanged between the mobile Bluetooth devices and access points. The BLUEPAC protocol concepts have been implemented above a Bluetooth emulation system to test their feasibility. First results clearly showed the importance of minimizing the handoff duration to allow efficient operation of upper layer protocols such as TCP.