Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has gained significant momentum. However, the original design of BLE focused on star topology networking, which limits network coverage range and precludes end-to-end path ...diversity. In contrast, other competing technologies overcome such constraints by supporting the mesh network topology. For these reasons, academia, industry, and standards development organizations have been designing solutions to enable BLE mesh networks. Nevertheless, the literature lacks a consolidated view on this emerging area. This paper comprehensively surveys state of the art BLE mesh networking. We first provide a taxonomy of BLE mesh network solutions. We then review the solutions, describing the variety of approaches that leverage existing BLE functionality to enable BLE mesh networks. We identify crucial aspects of BLE mesh network solutions and discuss their advantages and drawbacks. Finally, we highlight currently open issues.
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Bluetooth technology is a key component of wireless communications. It provides a low-energy and low-cost solution for short-range radio transmissions. Bluetooth, more specifically Bluetooth Low ...Energy (BLE) has become the predominant technology for connecting IoT (Internet of Things). It can be found in cell phones, headsets, speakers, printers, keyboards, automobiles, children’s toys, and medical devices, as well as many other devices. The technology can also be found in automated smart homes, to provide monitors and controls for lights, thermostats, door locks, appliances, security systems, and cameras. Bluetooth offers convenience and ease of use, but it lacks a centralized security infrastructure. As a result, it has serious security vulnerabilities, and the need for awareness of the security risks are increasing as the technology becomes more widespread. This paper presents an overview of Bluetooth technology in IoT including its security, vulnerabilities, threats, and risk mitigation solutions, as well as real-life examples of exploits. Our study highlights the importance of understanding attack risks and mitigation techniques involved with using Bluetooth technology on our devices. Real-life examples of recent Bluetooth exploits are presented. Several recommended security measures are discussed to secure Bluetooth communication.
This paper presents an in-depth overview of the Bluetooth 5.1 Direction Finding standard’s potentials, thanks to enhancing the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) firmware. This improvement allows producers ...to create location applications based on the Angle of Departure (AoD) and the Angle of Arrival (AoA). Accordingly, it is conceivable to design proper Indoor Positioning Systems (IPS), for instance, for the traceability of resources, assets, and people. First of all, Radio Frequency (RF) radiogoniometry techniques, helpful in calculating AoA and AoD angles, are introduced in this paper. Subsequently, the topic relating to signal direction estimation is deepened. The Bluetooth Core Specification updates concerning version 5.1, both at the packet architecture and prototyping levels, are also reported. Some suitable platforms and development kits for running the new features are then presented, and some basic applications are illustrated. This paper’s final part allows ascertaining the improvement made by this new definition of BLE and possible future developments, especially concerning applications related to devices, assets, or people’s indoor localization. Some preliminary results gathered in a real evaluation scenario are also presented.
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The complexity of indoor radio propagation has resulted in location-awareness being derived from empirical fingerprinting techniques, where positioning is performed via a previously-constructed radio ...map, usually of WiFi signals. The recent introduction of the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) radio protocol provides new opportunities for indoor location. It supports portable battery-powered beacons that can be easily distributed at low cost, giving it distinct advantages over WiFi. However, its differing use of the radio band brings new challenges too. In this work, we provide a detailed study of BLE fingerprinting using 19 beacons distributed around a ~600 m 2 testbed to position a consumer device. We demonstrate the high susceptibility of BLE to fast fading, show how to mitigate this, and quantify the true power cost of continuous BLE scanning. We further investigate the choice of key parameters in a BLE positioning system, including beacon density, transmit power, and transmit frequency. We also provide quantitative comparison with WiFi fingerprinting. Our results show advantages to the use of BLE beacons for positioning. For one-shot (push-to-fix) positioning we achieve <; 2.6 m error 95% of the time for a dense BLE network (1 beacon per 30 m 2 ), compared to <; 4.8 m for a reduced density (1 beacon per 100 m 2 ) and <; 8.5 m for an established WiFi network in the same area.
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has gained very high momentum, as witnessed by its widespread presence in smartphones, wearables and other consumer electronics devices. This fact can be leveraged to carry ...out opportunistic sensor data collection (OSDC) in scenarios where a sensor node cannot communicate with infrastructure nodes. In such cases, a mobile entity (e.g., a pedestrian or a vehicle) equipped with a BLE-enabled device can collect the data obtained by the sensor node when both are within direct communication range. In this paper, we characterize, both analytically and experimentally, the performance and trade-offs of BLE as a technology for OSDC, for the two main identified approaches, and considering the impact of its most crucial configuration parameters. Results show that a BLE sensor node running on a coin cell battery can achieve a lifetime beyond one year while transferring around 10 Mbit/day, in realistic OSDC scenarios.
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Backscatter communication promises significant power and complexity advantages for Internet of Things devices such as radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and wireless sensor nodes. One ...perceived disadvantage of backscatter communication has been the requirement for specialized hardware such as RFID readers to receive backscatter signals. In this paper, we show how backscatter signals can be designed for compatibility with the Bluetooth 4.0 low energy (BLE) chipsets already present in billions of smart phones and tablets. We present a prototype microcontroller-based "BLE-Backscatter" tag that produces bandpass frequency-shift keying modulation at 1 Mb/s, enabling compatibility with conventional BLE advertising channels. Using a +23-dBm equivalent isotropically radiated power continuous wave (CW) carrier source, we demonstrate a range of up to 13 m between the tag and an unmodified Apple iPad Mini as well as a PC with the Nordic Semiconductor nRF51822 chipset. With the tag 1 m from the receiver, we demonstrate a range of up to 30 m between the CW carrier source and the tag. In both cases, the existing Bluetooth stack was used, with no modifications whatsoever to hardware, firmware, or software. The backscatter tag consumes only 1.56 nJ/b, over 6× less than the lowest power commercial Bluetooth transmitters.
Since its inception in 2013, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has become the standard for short-distance wireless communication in many consumer devices, as well as special-purpose devices. In this study, ...we analyze the security features available in Bluetooth LE standards and evaluate the features implemented in two BLE wearable devices (a Fitbit heart rate wristband and a Polar heart rate chest wearable) and a BLE keyboard to explore which security features in the BLE standards are implemented in the devices. In this study, we used the ComProbe Bluetooth Protocol Analyzer, along with the ComProbe software to capture the BLE traffic of these three devices. We found that even though the standards provide security mechanisms, because the Bluetooth Special Interest Group does not require that manufacturers fully comply with the standards, some manufacturers fail to implement proper security mechanisms. The circumvention of security in Bluetooth devices could leak private data that could be exploited by rogue actors/hackers, thus creating security, privacy, and, possibly, safety issues for consumers and the public. We propose the design of a Bluetooth Security Facts Label (BSFL) to be included on a Bluetooth/BLE enabled device's commercial packaging and conclude that there should be better mechanisms for informing users about the security and privacy provisions of the devices they acquire and use and to educate the public on protection of their privacy when buying a connected device.
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The IoT paradigm holds the promise to revolutionize the way we live and work by means of a wealth of new services, based on seamless interactions between a large amount of heterogeneous devices. ...After decades of conceptual inception of the IoT, in recent years a large variety of communication technologies has gradually emerged, reflecting a large diversity of application domains and of communication requirements. Such heterogeneity and fragmentation of the connectivity landscape is currently hampering the full realization of the IoT vision, by posing several complex integration challenges. In this context, the advent of 5G cellular systems, with the availability of a connectivity technology, which is at once truly ubiquitous, reliable, scalable, and cost-efficient, is considered as a potentially key driver for the yet-to emerge global IoT. In the present paper, we analyze in detail the potential of 5G technologies for the IoT, by considering both the technological and standardization aspects. We review the present-day IoT connectivity landscape, as well as the main 5G enablers for the IoT. Last but not least, we illustrate the massive business shifts that a tight link between IoT and 5G may cause in the operator and vendors ecosystem.
In the next few years, smart farming will reach each and every nook of the world. The prospects of using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for smart farming are immense. However, the cost and the ease ...in controlling UAVs for smart farming might play an important role for motivating farmers to use UAVs in farming. Mostly, UAVs are controlled by remote controllers using radio waves. There are several technologies such as Wi-Fi or ZigBee that are also used for controlling UAVs. However, Smart Bluetooth (also referred to as Bluetooth Low Energy) is a wireless technology used to transfer data over short distances. Smart Bluetooth is cheaper than other technologies and has the advantage of being available on every smart phone. Farmers can use any smart phone to operate their respective UAVs along with Bluetooth Smart enabled agricultural sensors in the future. However, certain requirements and challenges need to be addressed before UAVs can be operated for smart agriculture-related applications. Hence, in this article, an attempt has been made to explore the types of sensors suitable for smart farming, potential requirements and challenges for operating UAVs in smart agriculture. We have also identified the future applications of using UAVs in smart farming.
This article evaluates the quality-of-service performance and scalability of the recently released Bluetooth mesh protocol and provides general guidelines on its use and configuration. Through ...extensive simulations, we analyze the impact of the configuration of all the different protocol's parameters on the end-to-end reliability, delay, and scalability. In particular, we focus on the structure of the packet broadcast process, which takes place in time intervals known as Advertising Events and Scanning Events . Results indicate a high degree of interdependence among all the different timing parameters involved in both the scanning and the advertising processes and show that the correct operation of the protocol greatly depends on the compatibility between their configurations. We also demonstrate that introducing randomization in these timing parameters, as well as varying the duration of the Advertising Events , reduces the drawbacks of the flooding propagation mechanism implemented by the protocol. Using data collected from a real office environment, we also study the behavior of the protocol in the presence of WLAN interference. It is shown that Bluetooth mesh is vulnerable to external interference, even when implementing the standardized limitation of using only 3 out of the 40 Bluetooth low-energy frequency channels. We observe that the achievable average delay is relatively low, of around 250 ms for over 10 hops under the worst simulated network conditions. However, results prove that scalability is especially challenging for Bluetooth mesh since it is prone to broadcast storm, hindering the communication reliability for denser deployments.
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