Application of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) for outdoor asset tracking

Yeap, Tuck Keong (2024) Application of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) for outdoor asset tracking. Final Year Project, UTAR.

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Abstract

Outdoor asset tracking enables organisations to efficiently monitor and manage valuable assets, which is beneficial in industries such as logistics, construction, and agriculture. The benefits of using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology for outdoor asset tracking include low cost, compatibility with a wide range of devices, and ease of use. However, the implementation of standard Bluetooth technology has been found to have limitations in outdoor environments due to signal attenuation and interference, as well as being restricted by a limited range, which poses challenges in establishing reliable outdoor asset tracking. The lowest layer of the BLE stack is found to be the Physical Layer (PHY); the solution presented to mitigate or overcome these challenges is the implementation of Coded PHY. Several improvements can be identified using Coded PHY technology, such as increased reliability and range through the use of forward error correction techniques that allow the transmitted signals to tolerate interference and reach greater distances. This research aims to utilize the STEVAL-IDB012V1 development board equipped with Bluetooth version 5.3 for outdoor asset tracking using Coded PHY in BLE. By comparing Coded PHY with 1M PHY in terms of distance through RSSI readings, the study highlights the advantages of employing Coded PHY. Despite its higher power consumption, Coded PHY is preferred for distance-critical applications like outdoor asset tracking. Additionally, a log distance path loss model can be employed to estimate the distance between the receiving devices such as the smartphone and the evaluation board based on RSSI values, facilitating easy location tracking of belongings.

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