Piconet

A piconet is a network that is created using a wireless Bluetooth connection. Some examples of piconets include 1) a cell phone and a computer, 2) a laptop and a Bluetooth-enabled digital camera, or 3) several PDAs that are connected to each other.

Piconets can include anywhere from two to eight devices. One device serves as the master device, while the rest of the devices within the network are slave devices. The master device acts as the hub, meaning the slave devices must communicate through the master device in order to communicate with each other. In most piconets, the computer serves as the master device.

The term "piconet" is derived from the words "pico," which means "very small" (technically, one trillionth), and "net," which is short for "network." Therefore, the word "piconet" literally means "very small network."

Published: 2009