TSCH Meets BLE: Routed Mesh Communication Over BLE

• Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is the prevalent communication protocol for the Internet of Things. However, for time-critical applications requiring time-synchronized multi-hop networks with often multiple node exchanging data at the same time slot, BLE lacks a solution. Instead, we commonly see IEEE 802.15.4 being used with its Time-Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH) MAC layer. In this work, we build TBLE, which brings the established TSCH protocol to BLE, enabling BLE to be used for time-synchronized routed mesh communication. We show that in experimental testbed deployments, TBLE achieves similar performance to TSCH, with the possibility for lower average latencies of up to 20%. Moreover, due to the higher spectral efficiency of BLE compared with IEEE 802.15.4 (40 vs. 16 channels), more parallel routed communications are possible with TBLE, further reducing latency and increasing throughput.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Datorteknik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Computer Engineering (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik -- Kommunikationssystem (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering -- Communication Systems (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Internet of Things

Time Slotted Channel Hopping

IoT

BLE

TSCH

Bluetooth Low Energy

802.15.4

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