Creating a simple ad-hoc/mesh network, what's a good protocol to do it with?

I'm working on a project creating a fairly simple one-to-many host-to-slave network using a bunch of Android devices. What would be the best way to go about doing this?

A friend recommended Bluetooth, which I think would work very well for local small networks. This is actually one core component of the project we're doing, groups of devices in a maximum area of maybe 50 square meters (a large lecture hall, for example).

What would be the best way to connect a number of devices at a large distance from each other? Would rapid polling of the devices be possible? The project is based around device an开发者_如何学Cd user response time (sort of a response time test, in fact). Will having a host and guest network created on-the-fly be robust enough to detect response times in the milliseconds?

Thanks for any help, and I'm relatively new to this so if I wasn't clear or if any of my thinking was ridiculous, please let me know.

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There is no best way for something, there are particular solutions for particular cases.

Bluetooth is a small range wireless communication protocol, the maximum distance is for 100 meters for class 1 devices, class 2 - 10 meters, class 3 - 1 meter. It has a master/slave topology and a master can have a maximum of 8 slaves in a piconet, if you have more then 8 devices you go to a scatternet and things change.

You should study also what WiFi has to offer. For polling I think you could take a look at SNMP, maybe there is somekind of instrumentation it is already done.