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.

Popular Abstract

The current progress of industrial modernization leads to the need of monitoring
and controlling large number of sensors to enhance productivity and quality.
These sensors are used to measure temperature, pressures, air humidity,
light, location, level of fluids, etc. Data is gathered either automatically over
wired data acquisition systems or wireless in modern factories using Wireless
Sensor Network (WSN). WSN is ideally suited for modern factories where enormous
number of sensors need to reliably and securely communicate over the
netwrok. Consequently, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) concept has been
established.
IIoT is a part of Internet of Things (IoT) technology which aims to enable
the controlling and monitoring of smart devices in the industrial environment
using the internet. The development of industrial WSNs opens the door to
considerable challenges for the wireless market, such as the necessity of low
power consumption, low cost and simple reliable secure technology. One of
these wireless technologies is Bluetooth.
Bluetooth originally released in 2000 to act as a cable replacement technology
by enabling two devices to communicate wireless and form a 1-to-1
network topology. Due to the rapid growth in the IIoT market and the need
to have more devices connected together via a wireless technology, Bluetooth
Low Energy (BLE) emerged in 2010.
BLE is optimized to consume as low energy as possible. It has different
means of communication, either 1-to-1 topology or a 1-to-many (star), where
one device can communicate with several devices. The main disadvantage of
such connections setup is that all communications have to pass through one
main unit and in case of its failure, the whole network connections will be
dropped.
Lately, in 2017 a new Bluetooth mesh protocol has been developed to overcome the disadvantages of the existing star networks. This is accomplished
by allowing BLE devices to work in mesh topology that provides multi-paths
to the target device instead of the former peer-to-peer communications. Bluetooth
mesh protocol enables many-to-many communication and it is optimized
in a way to create a large-scale device network with an unlimited coverage area.
Bluetooth mesh protocol is ideally suited for building automation, sensors
networks, and for any solution that requires tens, hundreds, or thousands of
devices to reliably and securely communicate with one another. Within this
thesis, analysis of Bluetooth mesh protocol has been executed, and some of its
features have been highlighted and a practical model of received signal power
for mesh network devices has been constructed.

• author: Riad, Lamiaa and Elhesseawy, Haithem
• supervisor: Stefan Höst
• organization: Department of Electrical and Information Technology
• course: EITM02 20181
• year: 2018
• type: H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
• subject: Technology and Engineering
• keywords: Bluetooth, BLE, Sensor, IoT, RSSI, Machines, Path Loss, Line of Sight, Mesh Network, Non Line of Sight
• report number: LU/LTH-EIT 2018-672
• language: English
• id: 8963493
• date added to LUP: 2018-11-29 16:02:58
• date last changed: 2018-11-29 16:02:58