Detailed examination of a packet collision model for Bluetooth Low Energy advertising mode

The aim of this paper is to investigate the amount of energy that is required to successfully transmit information inside the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) advertising packets. There are applications that require more than one BLE node to simultaneously transmit data. The BLE protocol utilizes a specific communication method termed advertising mode to perform unidirectional broadcasts of data from the advertising devices. However, with an increased number of BLE devices advertising simultaneously, there will be inevitable packet collisions from the advertising devices. This results in a waste of energy, specifically in low-power applications where lower consumption is desirable to minimize the need for battery replacements. This paper examines a packet collision model for the BLE advertising mode with the results validated using experimental data. Our analysis shows that when the throughput of the BLE network starts to fall due to an increase in the number of packet collisions, the energy consumption of the BLE nodes increase exponentially with respect to the number of nodes

Survey of Spectrum Sharing for Inter-Technology Coexistence

Increasing capacity demands in emerging wireless technologies are expected to be met by network densification and spectrum bands open to multiple technologies. These will, in turn, increase the level of interference and also result in more complex inter-technology interactions, which will need to be managed through spectrum sharing mechanisms. Consequently, novel spectrum sharing mechanisms should be designed to allow spectrum access for multiple technologies, while efficiently utilizing the spectrum resources overall. Importantly, it is not trivial to design such efficient mechanisms, not only due to technical aspects, but also due to regulatory and business model constraints. In this survey we address spectrum sharing mechanisms for wireless inter-technology coexistence by means of a technology circle that incorporates in a unified, system-level view the technical and non-technical aspects. We thus systematically explore the spectrum sharing design space consisting of parameters at different layers. Using this framework, we present a literature review on inter-technology coexistence with a focus on wireless technologies with equal spectrum access rights, i.e. (i) primary/primary, (ii) secondary/secondary, and (iii) technologies operating in a spectrum commons. Moreover, we reflect on our literature review to identify possible spectrum sharing design solutions and performance evaluation approaches useful for future coexistence cases. Finally, we discuss spectrum sharing design challenges and suggest future research directions

Energy-Delay Tradeoff and Dynamic Sleep Switching for Bluetooth-Like Body-Area Sensor Networks

Wireless technology enables novel approaches to healthcare, in particular the remote monitoring of vital signs and other parameters indicative of people's health. This paper considers a system scenario relevant to such applications, where a smart-phone acts as a data-collecting hub, gathering data from a number of wireless-capable body sensors, and relaying them to a healthcare provider host through standard existing cellular networks. Delay of critical data and sensors' energy efficiency are both relevant and conflicting issues. Therefore, it is important to operate the wireless body-area sensor network at some desired point close to the optimal energy-delay tradeoff curve. This tradeoff curve is a function of the employed physical-layer protocol: in particular, it depends on the multiple-access scheme and on the coding and modulation schemes available. In this work, we consider a protocol closely inspired by the widely-used Bluetooth standard. First, we consider the calculation of the minimum energy function, i.e., the minimum sum energy per symbol that guarantees the stability of all transmission queues in the network. Then, we apply the general theory developed by Neely to develop a dynamic scheduling policy that approaches the optimal energy-delay tradeoff for the network at hand. Finally, we examine the queue dynamics and propose a novel policy that adaptively switches between connected and disconnected (sleeping) modes. We demonstrate that the proposed policy can achieve significant gains in the realistic case where the control "NULL" packets necessary to maintain the connection alive, have a non-zero energy cost, and the data arrival statistics corresponding to the sensed physical process are bursty.Comment: Extended version (with proofs details in the Appendix) of a paper accepted for publication on the IEEE Transactions on Communication

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) data streaming and integration of BLE and 5G mobile connectivity implementation

Abstract. The energy-efficient wireless connectivity is among the crucial enabler technologies for the Internet of Things (IoT) employed throughout a great number of different verticals. The Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) radio access technology is today among the most widely spread short-range wireless communication technologies for the energy-limited IoT devices available on the market. The thesis focuses on understanding and experimentally assessing the performance of the BLE technology with respect to the maximum communication link throughput and discovering the ways how BLE can be integrated with the 5th Generation Mobile Network (5G). To reach this goal, the study investigates the BLE technology focusing specifically on the parameters affecting the communication throughput, implements and carries the empirical throughput performance measurements for various architectures involving communication between embedded devices and the communication between an embedded device and a mobile terminal, and explore the means of boosting the communication performance range of BLE-enabled devices by integrating BLE with 5G and enabling streaming of the BLE data over 5G. Based on the study, it has been shown that the Nordic UART service achieves a BLE communication throughput of 92 kbps for most of the parameter configurations of connection interval, physical layer configuration, and data lengths. Based on the observed Phone-to-Server mean throughput of 23.11 Mbps, it can be stated that the overall throughput of the end-to-end system, which includes a Board-to-Phone BLE connection and a Phone-to-Server TCP/IP connection, is entirely reliant on the throughput of the BLE connection

Wireless sensor network for health monitoring

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is becoming a significant enabling technology for a wide variety of applications. Recent advances in WSN have facilitated the realization of pervasive health monitoring for both homecare and hospital environments. Current technological advances in sensors, power-efficient integrated circuits, and wireless communication have allowed the development of miniature, lightweight, low-cost, and smart physiological sensor nodes. These nodes are capable of sensing, processing, and communicating one or more vital signs. Furthermore, they can be used in wireless personal area networks (WPANs) or wireless body sensor networks (WBSNs) for health monitoring. Many studies were performed and/or are under way in order to develop flexible, reliable, secure, real-time, and power-efficient WBSNs suitable for healthcare applications. To efficiently control and monitor a patient’s status as well as to reduce the cost of power and maintenance, IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee, a communication standard for low-power wireless communication, is developed as a new efficient technology in health monitoring systems. The main contribution of this dissertation is to provide a modeling, analysis, and design framework for WSN health monitoring systems. This dissertation describes the applications of wireless sensor networks in the healthcare area and discusses the related issues and challenges. The main goal of this study is to evaluate the acceptance of the current wireless standard for enabling WSNs for healthcare monitoring in real environment. Its focus is on IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee protocols combined with hardware and software platforms. Especially, it focuses on Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance mechanism (CSMA/CA) algorithms for reliable communication in multiple accessing networks. The performance analysis metrics are established through measured data and mathematical analysis. This dissertation evaluates the network performance of the IEEE 802.15.4 unslotted CSMA/CA mechanism for different parameter settings through analytical modeling and simulation. For this protocol, a Markov chain model is used to derive the analytical expression of normalized packet transmission, reliability, channel access delay, and energy consumption. This model is used to describe the stochastic behavior of random access and deterministic behavior of IEEE 802.15.4 CSMA/CA. By using it, the different aspects of health monitoring can be analyzed. The sound transmission of heart beat with other smaller data packet transmission is studied. The obtained theoretical analysis and simulation results can be used to estimate and design the high performance health monitoring systems