Implementation and design issues for using Bluetooth low energy in passive keyless entry systems

Performance Evaluation of Bluetooth Low Energy: A Systematic Review

“…In fact, RF modules in general provide a feature called Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) that indicates the power strength of the Tx signal received by the Rx node. Several studies indicate empirically the relationship between RSSI and distance ([ 23 , 29 , 30 , 33 , 34 ]), but [ 22 ] finds a model that can be used to calculate the distance directly from the RSSI, as described in the following equation: where N is a constant assumed as one, d is the distance in meters between the two devices and a is the power of the Tx at a one-meter distance.…”

“…The synergy between good performance and ubiquitous diffusion (today, BLE is available in all PCs, tablets and smartphones) makes BLE an excellent candidate for a great variety of applications: in the medical field for e-health applications [ 1 , 2 , 3 ], e.g., in a body area network [ 4 ] (using ECG [ 5 , 6 ], a heart rate sensor [ 7 , 8 ], a blood flowmeter [ 9 ], EMG for prosthetic hand control [ 10 ] and an IMU sensor used for early diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease [ 11 ]; it is also used to monitor respiration, activities and falls [ 8 ]), in automotive applications [ 12 , 13 ], in voice communications [ 14 ], for kinematic tracking [ 15 , 16 ], in domotics for healthcare environments and smart houses [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ], for transmission of M-IMU data in game controlling [ 21 ], in security systems [ 22 , 23 ], to understand crowd dynamic [ 24 ], and so on. It has been successfully used for position detection and distance measurement using beacon communication.…”

“…In this modality, different devices or sensors, provided with the BLE interface and placed in a structured environment, are programmed to send broadcast messages (described in Section 2.2.1 ) so that listener devices (e.g., user’s mobile device) can receive them. In this way, it is possible to send some pieces of information about the surrounding area [ 25 ], or to detect the user position [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ], or to measure the distance between sensor devices in the environment [ 33 , 34 ], or also to detect the presence of devices, and so people [ 22 , 24 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ]. Moreover, thanks to its versatility and low power consumption, BLE has also been applied in Internet of Things (IoT) technologies [ 39 ], for example transmitting Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) packets over Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks [ 40 , 41 , 42 ] (6LowPAN) in health monitoring application [ 43 ].…”

User Context Detection for Relay Attack Resistance in Passive Keyless Entry and Start System

“…In recent times, the new PKES replaced the key fob with a smartphone. Karani et al [12] and Lin et al [13] designed and implemented the PKES based on BLE. In the new PKES, the vehicle determines if the key is in proximity and unlocks itself by monitoring the BLE received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measurements from the key.…”

LASER: Lightweight and Secure Remote Keyless Entry Protocol

“…Attacks such as jamming-and-replay attacks and relay attacks are still effective against most recent RKE systems (Ibrahim et al, 2018), even when many secure schemes have been designed. Although they are interesting from a theoretical point of view, the complexity of these solutions is excessive to implement them into a fob (Karani et al, 2016). This paper presents a lightweight and general solution based on a one message protocol, which guarantees the integrity and validity of the authentication in RKE systems, protecting the communication against the well-known jamming-and-replay and relay attacks, without using complex cryptographic schemes.…”