BLE 5.x-Based Enhanced Service Architecture for Delay-Sensitive IoT Applications

Abstract

Recent advancements in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) have made it a promising solution for delay-sensitive and energy-constrained IoT applications, such as robotic automation in industrial settings. However, existing BLE service architectures, namely the BLE beacon-to-user and beacon-gateway-server-user models, either suffer from high delays, unreliable performance, or a reliance on internet connectivity, which is often limited in environments such as underground parking areas, airports, and supermarkets. Additionally, these architectures use BLE legacy advertising, which offers limited throughput and thus contributes to further delays. To address these limitations, this paper proposes a novel BLE-centric enhanced service architecture that minimizes the delay experienced by users and enhances the energy efficiency of BLE beacons. Based on the proposed service architecture, we first develop an analytical model to evaluate delay and then derive simplified closed-form expressions for selecting optimal transmission parameters. These parameters minimize the delay experienced by users and improve the energy efficiency of BLE beacons. The proposed architecture also leverages BLE extended and periodic advertising modes, which offer higher throughput, thereby further reducing delay and improving overall performance. Additionally, lightweight algorithms are introduced to adapt these parameters dynamically based on network conditions. The proposed model is validated through simulations, showing strong agreement with the analysis and confirming its practical effectiveness.