Hello,
I'm experimenting on heterogeneous ad hoc networks, which today are still very restricted in terms of hardware availability for off-the-shelf devices. Actually, the two most common technologies available today are 802.11 and Bluetooth, being this last one able to form simple personal area networks in the form of piconets.
In practical terms, the BlueZ stack of the Linux allows the formation of Bluetooth PANs consisting of up to 8 nodes, but it's an incredibly difficult process - actually, the piconet master needs to bridge connections so that all other devices in the network, which depend on this master, are able to reach it other directly - or at least feel like they are doing that. In fact, everything is just an emulation, since Bluetooth is a connection-oriented technology.
BNEP (Bluetooth Network Encapsulation Protocol) is the piece responsible for emulating an Ethernet network over Bluetooth, and theoretically any IP and above protocols can be used. Trying with simple IP broadcasts over a Bluetooth network shows that it works, but the problem comes when I try to do "straight" layer 2 broadcasts (not coming from the IP layer), such as the ones that BATMAN L2 does.
I tried to run BATMAN and add the interfaces used on each device - pan0 for the master, which is a bridge device, and bnep0 for the slave, but the frame dont seem to reach any destination on the network. The originators table remains empty on both sides of the connection. Running Wireshark shows the frame being generated, but never reaching anyone.
So, I still cannot figure out why this is happening. I'd like to know if anyone has adventured in doing something similar and succeeded.
best regards,