Bluetooth low energy based ticketing systems

This thesis proposes a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) based payment solution for public transportation. The thesis first reviews some of the ‘Mobile payment solutions´. Traditionally, these services have revolved around technologies like Barcodes, Quick Response (QR) codes, Short Messaging Services (SMS) etc. However, with the advent of smartphones equipped with Bluetooth controllers and security chips, a number of innovative payment services are being studied. Furthermore, this thesis also presents the necessary background to understand the BLE technology. Based on BLE technology, BLE based ticketing protocols are presented. An emphasis on Public transport agency is made. To accomplish the task of designing these protocols, Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) system is extensively studied. GATT defines the concepts of services and profiles into the BLE architecture. Profiles like alert notification, proximity and blood pressure are already defined in the BLE specification. Any new profiles created will be put on top of GATT and are known as Custom Profiles. There are Bluetooth controllers manufactured by Nordic semiconductor which is used as reference in designing these protocols. However complete implementation of the system is not performed in this work. A model with necessary protocols is only presented here. This work can also be implemented on various Bluetooth manufacturing controllers