An approach of Bluetooth performance evaluation in an Android automotive setting

Abstract: In recent years cars are becoming more and more connected and it has become commonplace to connect one’s phone to the car interface, allowing streaming of music, making calls and sending messages. The primary technology used for connection is Bluetooth, a short-ranged wireless communication technology that has been around since 1999 and improved and expanded upon ever since. It is of vital importance to evaluate the performance of Bluetooth in an in-car system to make sure the connection establishment and communication flow is without hindrance and to assess the Bluetooth functionality whenever there is a new software update within the infotainment system. In this thesis we investigate ways to develop a test for Bluetooth performance in an Android in-car infotainment system. To simulate a scenario of a person entering their car, a test is designed to measure relevant Bluetooth profiles, the time it takes for the phone book to get downloaded to the in-car system, and the total time for the entire auto connection process to finish. The software of the test is developed in the source code of the infotainment unit to allow for evaluation in a lab environment as well as in cars. The test is run on two different phone models, to show how an comparison could be made with the test method, repeatedly in a lab to produce 10000 measurements. The results given are consistent measurements in a lab environment and potential for implementation in the real world with further improvements. The results from the test can be used to evaluate differences in connection times for various cars and phone models, or to continuously monitor the connection performance in a single setup.