BLE is a widely used short-range technology which has gained a relevant position inside the Internet-of-Things (IoT) paradigm development thanks to its simplicity, low-power consumption, lowcost and robustness. New enhancements over BLE have focused on supporting mesh network topology. Compared to other mesh networks, BLE mesh has only considered a managed flooding protocol in its first version. Managed flooding may generally seem inefficient in many contexts, but it is a high desirable option when data transmission is urgent, the network is small or its configuration changes in a very dynamic way. Knowing the interest to many application contexts, this paper analyses the impact of tweaking several features over the reliability and efficiency of the mesh network. These features are configured and controlled in different layers: message repetition schemes, the transmission randomization, the election of a scheme based on an acknowledged or unacknowledged transmission, etc. In order to estimate the real performance of a mesh network deployment, this paper evaluates the effects of the interaction of the chosen parameters, their appropriate adjustment in relation with the characteristics of real implementations and the true overhead related to the whole protocol stack. The paper identifies configuration challenges, proposes network tuning criteria and outlines possible standard improvements. For this purpose, a detailed assessment on the implementation and execution of real devices has been performed with their chipset limitations. INDEX TERMS Bluetooth low energy, wireless mesh networks, BLE mesh, managed flooding, performance.
The device discovery process is one of the most crucial aspects in real deployments of sensor networks. Recently, several works have analyzed the topic of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) device discovery through analytical or simulation models limited to version 4.x. Non-connectable and non-scannable undirected advertising has been shown to be a reliable alternative for discovering a high number of devices in a relatively short time period. However, new features of Bluetooth 5.0 allow us to define a variant on the device discovery process, based on BLE scannable undirected advertising events, which results in higher discovering capacities and also lower power consumption. In order to characterize this new device discovery process, we experimentally model the real device behavior of BLE scannable undirected advertising events. Non-detection packet probability, discovery probability, and discovery latency for a varying number of devices and parameters are compared by simulations and experimental measurements. We demonstrate that our proposal outperforms previous works, diminishing the discovery time and increasing the potential user device density. A mathematical model is also developed in order to easily obtain a measure of the potential capacity in high density scenarios.
Timing points used in running races and other competition events are generally based on radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology. Athletes’ times are calculated via passive RFID tags and reader kits. Specifically, the reader infrastructure needed is complex and requires the deployment of a mat or ramps which hide the receiver antennae under them. Moreover, with the employed tags, it is not possible to transmit additional and dynamic information such as pulse or oximetry monitoring, alarms, etc. In this paper we present a system based on two low complex schemes allowed in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE): the non-connectable undirected advertisement process and a modified version of scannable undirected advertisement process using the new capabilities present in Bluetooth 5. After fully describing the system architecture, which allows full real-time position monitoring of the runners using mobile phones on the organizer side and BLE sensors on the participants’ side, we derive the mobility patterns of runners and capacity requirements, which are determinant for evaluating the performance of the proposed system. They have been obtained from the analysis of the real data measured in the last Barcelona Marathon. By means of simulations, we demonstrate that, even under disadvantageous conditions (50% error ratio), both schemes perform reliably and are able to detect the 100% of the participants in all the cases. The cell coverage of the system needs to be adjusted when non-connectable process is considered. Nevertheless, through simulation and experimental, we show that the proposed scheme based on the new events available in Bluetooth 5 is clearly the best implementation alternative for all the cases, no matter the coverage area and the runner speed. The proposal widely exceeds the detection requirements of the real scenario, surpassing the measured peaks of 20 sensors per second incoming in the coverage area, moving at speeds that range from 1.5 m/s to 6.25 m/s. The designed real test-bed shows that the scheme is able to detect 72 sensors below 600 ms, fulfilling comfortably the requirements determined for the intended application. The main disadvantage of this system would be that the sensors are active, but we have proved that its consumption can be so low (9.5 µA) that, with a typical button cell, the sensor battery life would be over 10,000 h of use.
Bluetooth has constantly evolved from its cradle in 1997 to the last 5.2 version in 2020. With each update and amendment, it has gained in speed, range, and versatility. One of the latest introductions was the Bluetooth Mesh Profile (BMP) making it a technology suitable for a wide variety of applications. Nevertheless, BMP was designed to maintain the compatibility with Bluetooth version 4 devices already deployed in the market. This imposes some restrictions that place Bluetooth Mesh under other competing technologies like Zigbee or Thread in terms of throughput performance. In this paper we propose two mechanisms to overcome these limitations and take advantage of the new extended advertising capabilities introduced with Bluetooth 5. These mechanisms are presented as modifications to the current protocol stack to allow the transmission of larger data structures. Thus, it is possible to boost the throughput of Bluetooth Mesh making it suitable to more demanding applications like, for example, image transmission. The first proposal is designed as an adaptation layer to avoid modifying the standard in its current form. The second makes minimal changes to the frame structure at the different layers enabling the user to accommodate possible encapsulations (i.e., tunneling) without incurring IPv6-layer fragmentation. We have analyzed both solutions and compared them with the current BMP in terms of throughput, delay, and energy consumption for different channel conditions and network size. The results show that except for very small messages or poor channel conditions the proposals improve the throughput and delay of the current BMP.
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