Implementation and Evaluation of Bluetooth Low Energy for Musical Devices

Abstract: This paper presents the possibility to transfer Musical Instrument Digital Interface messages overBluetooth Low Energy. The main problem was to transmit the messages between two computers inless than 10 milliseconds. Anything above 10 milliseconds could be noticed as a delay by the personplaying or listening to the music. A prototype was written which could transfer Musical InstrumentDigital Interface messages over Bluetooth Low Energy between two Linux-computers together with atesting framework which was used to make measurements. The prototype was written in the languageC++ with the BlueZ library. The time it took for one packet to travel back and forth from the computerswas clocked to get an estimation of the time it took for a packet to travel from one computer to theother. The measured results showed that it was possible to reach the desired time of 10 milliseconds.The results can also be used when considering development of other kind of equipment and/or applicationsthat implements the use of Bluetooth Low Energy.