Bluetooth Low Energy Industrial Sensor

Abstract: Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) market is rapidly growing and expected to further expand in the incoming years. To keep up with such a fast pace, new wireless technologies need to be developed to accommodate the huge number of devices expected to connect to the internet. IIoT devices are designed to be low cost devices which operate in low power mode to provide long battery life time. In order to achieve so, low complexity and low power consumption algorithms are a must to be implemented that leads to new fields of research. Moreover, a robust, reliable, and secure network technology is required to support the IIoT devices connectivity and operation. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) mesh protocol has been developed to enable BLE devices to be a part of this enormous IIoT market. Other competing technologies are there as well in the market such as ZigBee and Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN). This thesis studies the performance of the physical links among several BLE mesh nodes. Real world measurements in an industrial environment have been carried out (factory), then they are used to build an indoor path loss model, where Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) values are measured. Furthermore, a comparison between theoretical and practical (based on measurements) path loss has been studied. Moreover, the probability of receiving packets successfully has been measured. As a result, we can briefly state that BLE mesh network can be a possible technology which supports the creation of a very reliable, secure, robust, and low power consumption if it is configured wisely.