ECE Senior Capstone Project 2017 Tech Notes

Indoor Navigation for the Visually Impaired

How Bluetooth Works

By Jeffrey Wu, ECE ‘17
_____________________________________________________

Introduction PAN allows users to connect and disconnect

This report addresses the functionality of Bluetooth dynamically as they enter and exit the effective area
as communication technology specifically in the of the Bluetooth device. An example of this is
case of the Indoor Navigation for the Visually shown in Figure 1. Nowadays, Bluetooth is used in
Impaired capstone project. The project is to create a everything from hands-free phone connections to
system for those with low vision such that they can speakers, to connecting computers and electrical
navigate autonomously throughout a building. Low components.
power Bluetooth could be used effectively for both
locating a person within a building and sending
location information to and from the user. While
applicable to this project, Bluetooth is a useful tool
that can be utilized in many different projects and
technologies, and having a basis of knowledge in
Bluetooth will add a strong tool for use in other
work. Moreover, having knowledge of Bluetooth as Figure 1: Phones, computers and other devices can be
well as the basics of communications protocols is connected through a Bluetooth PAN
helpful not only for those looking to understand Bluetooth Functionality
more of the world around them, but also for those Bluetooth operates at either Basic Rate (BR) or Low
looking to create wireless or ad hoc networks. This Energy (LE), but one system can switch between the
report will address the definition of Bluetooth and two for robustness. Basic Rate has the optional
uses for Bluetooth, and the functionality of Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) as well as many other
Bluetooth. options that allow for higher data transfer rates as
well as higher complexity, but at a higher cost. For
the capstone project, we will be focusing on
History of Bluetooth Bluetooth Low Energy as it is lower cost and the
Bluetooth was created as an alternative to cables and complexity and amount of data required for the
wires to create a network. It was built to connect the project is relatively low. [1]
telecommunications protocol under one universal
standard. It is used for short range wireless Bluetooth BR and EDR operate between the
communications and transmissions. Bluetooth frequencies of 2.4 GHz and 2.4835 GHz. Each band
enabled devices create ad hoc networks (networks is 1MHz wide and each band is spaced by 1MHz.
with only one purpose) with each other to exchange There are 79 bands in standard Bluetooth and there
or broadcast information. While Bluetooth was are guard bands of 2MHz at the bottom of the
originally aimed at becoming a replacement for frequency spectrum and 3.5MHz at the top of the
cables, it is now widely used because it creates a frequency spectrum. [1]
dynamic Personal Area Network (PAN). [1] This
The process for discovery in a Bluetooth device is Bluetooth Low Energy
relatively quick and simple. One device, hoping to Bluetooth LE operates within the same frequency
make connections sends out inquiry “packets” into band as BR and EDR, but there are only 40 channels
the different channels at a specific rate. The second with 2MHz in between each instead of the 79 from
device, which is considered discoverable, scans the BR. [1, 2] Three of the forty channels are used as
channels at a different rate looking for inquiry “advertising channels”. Devices that want to
packets. When the second device receives an connect and send information will transmit packets
inquiry packet, it responds with a Frequency to the advertising channels and devices will receive
Hopping Synchronization (FHS) packet which the packets from the channels. The former are
contains the information required to set up a known as advertisers while the latter are scanners.
connection. The first device receives the FHS When an advertiser sends a packet, it initiates an
packet when it returns to the proper channel and advertising event. [1] During an advertising event,
connects the devices. Once connected, the devices the scanner may request information from the
may communicate and synchronously hop to advertiser over the advertising channel. The
different channels to enable efficient bandwidth advertiser may respond to scanner requests as well
usage. [1, 2] as end the advertising event at any time. For
broadcasting or one-way communication, the
Standard Bluetooth uses frequency hopping and advertiser-scanner method is enough.
“packet switching” to get the information from one
end user to another. “Packet Switching” is a However, for two-way communication, a device
communication method in which the sender implementing LE must become an “initiator”. An
transmits its data in many small packets with an initiator will listen on the advertising channel for
order number. Each packet finds the fastest way to specific connectable packets and initiate a
the receiver and the receiver re-orders the packets connection with the advertiser. [1] The initiator and
once they all arrive. An example of packet the advertiser begin a connection event where the
switching is seen below in Figure 2. initiator is the master and the advertiser is the slave.
The initiator may end the connection event at any
time and the initiator and advertiser use the
frequency hopping method from BR and EDR to
transmit efficiently. [1] Note that for Bluetooth LE
there are only 3 channels in use for broadcasting as
well as for connecting devices. All other channels
are used for communication during a connection
Figure 2: Host 1 sends four packets to Host 2 through packet event.
switching. Host 2 will then reorder the packets once they
arrive Bluetooth LE allows for quick and easy one-way
communication without requiring too much power.
For synchronization, there is one device that is the This method can be more than enough for many
master that dictates the synchronization clock and implementations of Bluetooth, and Bluetooth LE
the all the other devices follow the master clock and also has the versatility to switch over to a two-way
frequency hopping pattern to communicate. [1] The communication similar to BR while maintaining
method of frequency hopping and packet switching lower power consumption. A big drawback of
means that the data from the sender is put into Bluetooth LE is fewer channels, which results in
packages of a prescribed number of bytes and each slower transmission time. Additionally, Bluetooth
package is sent over one of the 79 bands. [1] The BR and Bluetooth LE can be used for determining
process of frequency hopping ensures effective location in a method similar to the one used by
bandwidth usage and spreads the traffic out over the Ultra-Wideband Signals [3, 4, 5]. More information
whole band. on wireless triangulation for location is in Brian
O’Keefe’s Tech Note entitled ___.
2
Conclusion
All in all, Bluetooth technology is easy to use, easy
to set up, and relatively cheap. Using Bluetooth may
be a viable option for the Indoor Navigation for the
Visually Impaired Project for communication and
location data if the location accuracy can be precise
enough for navigation.

Bluetooth is a flexible tool that can be utilized in

many different solutions and projects. For more
examples of the uses and implementations of
Bluetooth, check out these other capstone projects:
Link to other projects.

References
All images were either taken from Pixabay or
created.
[1] Bluetooth, “Bluetooth Core Specification v5.0,”
Dec. 2016. Retrieved from:
https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/ad
opted-specifications
[2] King, T., Lemelson, H., Farber, A., &
Effelsberg, W. (2009 Aug). BluePos:
Positioning with Bluetooth. 2009 IEEE
Symposium on Intelligent Signal Processing.
doi: 10.1109/WISP.2009.5286541
[3] Wang, Y., Ye, Q., Cheng, J., & Wang, L. (2015,
Dec). RSSI-Based Bluetooth Indoor
Localization. 2015 11th International
Conference on Mobile Ad-hoc and Sensor
Networks (MSN). pp 165-171 doi:
10.1109/MSN.2015.14
[4] Kuxdorf-Alkirata, N. & Brückmann (2016,
Sept). Reliable and Low-Cost Indoor
Localization based on Bluetooth Low
Energy. 2016 3rd International Symposium
on Wireless Systems within the Conferences
on Intelligent Data Acquisition and
Advanced Computing Systems (IDAACS-
SWS). doi: 10.1109/IDAACS-
SWS.2016.7805794
[5] Mair, N. & Mahmoud, Q. (2012 Oct). A
collaborative Bluetooth-based Approach to
Localization of Mobile Devices. 2012 8th
International Conference on Collaborative
Computing: Networking, Applications and
Worksharing (CollaborateCom). doi:
10.4108/icst.collaboratecom.2012.250437