Faculty of Engineering Technology

M-Group
CAMPUS BRUGGE Bozheng Pang

Re: Reliability issues of Bluetooth Low Energy under Wi-Fi

Bozheng Pang <bozheng.pang@kuleuven.be>
BP 13/07/2021 09:39 AM

To: Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Cc: Tim Claeys; Hans Hallez; Jeroen Boydens

Dear Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE),

We feel sorry for the reliability issues you are facing now. According to your description, we propose some
possible solutions.

1. Please find a way to detect the interference in the air.

• Current issue: Till now, we do not see any interference detection method in your specification
(BLE specification 5.2). It means that you are NOT aware of the environment.
• Possible solution: We recommend you to detect the interference in the air or monitor the
environment bytwo parameters which are supervision timeout (ST) and packet loss (PL). With these
two parameters, you are able to monitor your communication accurately and continuously.
2. Please update your channel selection algorithms (CSAs) if possible.
• Current issue: According to our research, the two CSAs you use are NOT efficient enough to
deal with dynamic interference such as Wi-Fi. However, as we all know, your work environment is full
of dynamic interference such as Wi-Fi.
• Possible solution: We recommend you to update your CSAs by simply adding an FIFO into
them. This FIFO is responsible for learning the environment by storing the detected interference
information. Then the CSAs are able to calculate the interference probability based on the FIFO
content and thus help you better deal with the Wi-Fi interference.

Hope you feel better soon! If you have any other issues, please do not hesitate to contact us, and we will
definitely try to help!

Regards,
Bozheng Pang, PhD researcher
KU Leuven | Bruges Campus
Faculty of Engineering Technology | Technology Cluster Computer Science
Mechatronics Group (M-Group)
Spoorwegstraat 12 | B-8200 Brugge | BELGIUM
tel +32 50 66 49 72
http://www.fet.kuleuven.be/m-group

From: Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) <BLE@kuleuven.be>

Sent: Tuesday 12 July 2021 03:30 PM
To: Bozheng Pang <bozheng.pang@kuleuven.be>
Subject: Reliability issues of Bluetooth Low Energy under Wi-Fi

Dear Bozheng,

I am writing this email since I am currently facing some reliability issues when I work together with Wi-Fi. I can feel myself
losing some packets or even a connection sometimes. I have already used channel selection algorithms (CSAs) to hop
randomly inside the 2.4 GHz frequency band, but they do not really solve my issues…… So could you please give me some
suggestion?
……

Contact: bozheng.pang@kuleuven.be hans.hallez@kuleuven.be (co-supervisor) jeroen.boydens@kuleuven.be (supervisor)