ABSTRACT
A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) represents a system of wireless mobile nodes that can freely and dynamically self-organize into arbitrary and temporary network topologies, allowing people and devices to seamlessly internetwork in areas without any preexisting communication infrastructure. While many challenges remain to be resolved before large scale MANETs can be widely deployed, small-scale mobile ad hoc networks will soon appear. Network cards for single-hop ad hoc wireless networks are already on the market, and these technologies constitute the building blocks to construct small-scale ad hoc networks that extend the range of single-hop wireless technologies to few kilometers. It is therefore important to understand the qualitative and quantitative behavior of single-hop ad hoc wireless networks. The first part of this chapter presents the taxonomy of single-hop wireless technologies. Specifically, we introduce the concept of Body, Personal, and Local wireless networks, and we discuss their applicative scenarios. The second part of the chapter focuses on the emerging networking standards for constructing smallscale ad hoc networks: IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth. The IEEE 802.11 standard is a good platform to implement a single-hop local ad hoc network because of its extreme simplicity. Furthermore, multi-hop networks covering areas of several square kilometers could be built by exploiting the IEEE 802.11 technology. On smaller scales, the Bluetooth technologies can be exploited to build ad hoc wireless Personal and Body Area Networks, i.e., networks that connect devices placed on a person’s body or inside a small circle around it. The chapter presents the architectures and protocols of IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth. In addition, the performance of these two technologies is discussed.
