Meaning "tiny" network, a piconet is a Bluetooth network composed of two or more Bluetooth devices that operate in close proximity on the same channel and frequency hopping sequence. Piconets operate in both ad hoc (peer-to-peer) and infrastructure (central base station) modes of operation.
Masters, Slaves and Scatternets
In a piconet, one device is the master, which establishes the frequency hopping scheme, and there can be up to seven active and 255 inactive slave devices. However, a slave in one piconet can be a master in another, creating a chain of piconets called a "scatternet" that extends the distance between all devices. See
Bluetooth.