Packet Delivery Ratio and Latency Analysis in BLE Mesh Networks: the Effect of Protocol Parameters Configuration

Emerging sensing and Internet of Things applications require very dense deployments that rely on wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Among the many communication schemes for WSNs, Mesh technologies, such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Mesh, offer flexibility, scalability and enhanced reliability, which are especially attractive for large scale sensor networks. This study examines the impact of protocol parameters configurations on BLE Mesh communication in dense sensor networks. Different parameters regulate communication in a BLE Mesh network, influencing energy consumption, traffic, reliability, and latency. Using the MATLAB Bluetooth Toolbox Mesh simulator, simulations were carried out to evaluate the effect of Time-To-Live (TTL), Scan Interval, and Advertising inter-PDU interval on Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), latency and traffic. Results reveal that lowering TTL just above the minimum path length, along with tailored scanning and advertising configurations, achieves a PDR above 90% while also granting traffic reduction compared to higher TTL values. Furthermore, it was found out that choosing a value of inter PDU in the range 1-2 ms gives both the best latency and PDR results. As an increase in messages transmission may severely degrade the performance in the BLE mesh flooding scenario, these findings provide insight into how to achieve traffic reduction while also granting available routes for correct message reception.