ToothLess: A Bluetooth Multi-Hop Architecture for Ubiquitous Smartphone Internet Provisioning in Constrained Environments

With the proliferation of mobile devices as a primary means of communication, reliance on conventional connectivity remains a significant challenge in rural areas, disasterhit regions, and network-congested environments. The majority of communication traffic occupies the cellular and Wi-Fi bands, while the Bluetooth spectrum remains underutilized and largely restricted to low-traffic applications. Given its lower power requirements, sufficient range, and widespread availability, Bluetooth presents an attractive alternative medium for data communication.In this paper, we propose ToothLess, which exploits a Chord-inspired protocol to build a peer-to-peer Bluetooth mesh network for modern mobile devices. The proposed system enables offline devices to relay Internet-bound traffic through nearby peers and a small number of gateway devices that have Internet access. We demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach with real-world deployment on Android-powered devices. By combining Bluetooth-based ad hoc networking with distributed routing, the proposed approach demonstrates the ability of the mobile devices to cooperatively extend Internet connectivity in environments with limited or no network infrastructure.