Applying Multi-Role Communication for Bluetooth Smart Devices

Abstract

Many new cars can communicate with a smartphone and use it as a music player, a navigation unit, or use it to let the driver make a telephone call. Consat Engineering AB has pushed such communication technology even further by developing a prototype system in which the car uses Bluetooth Smart/Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connections to track the position of the smartphone in relationship to the car itself. The prototype allows for the phone to automatically unlock the car when close to it and start it when inside. In this thesis I improve on that prototype by developing and evaluating the use of a scalable, energy-efficient, wireless network of multi-role BLE devices for positioning. The results show that the system works well with a distance of 10 meters between the nodes, and that the signal strength can reach distances of up to 30 meters. The resulting system is not as scalable as was first intended but still more so than the Consat prototype. However, by building the system with newer hardware with more RAM, the scalability problem can be solved. The results of this project demonstrates that a network of multi-role BLE devices can be used as a scalable, energy-efficient solution for positioning of a device through continuous flow of data.