PROJECT TITLE :

User Existence-Aware BLE Beacon Firmware for Maximized Battery Lifetime

ABSTRACT:

Because of their scalability and affordability, in addition to the proliferation of Bluetooth-enabled devices, Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacon networks are one common infrastructure for Internet of Things (IoT) applications and smart city applications. However, BLE beacon networks are plagued by short battery lifetimes, which results in increased costs associated with maintenance. In this paper, we propose a novel user existence-aware BLE beacon firmware called User-B. This firmware changes the operating configuration of a BLE beacon in order to extend the lifetime of a BLE beacon. A mechanism for the detection of nearby user smartphones is proposed, and it will make use of the scan response and request features that are included in the Bluetooth Core Specifications. In addition, we present a model that accounts for the amount of energy that the proposed firmware uses, as well as a problem for optimizing the firmware in order to find the configuration that uses the least amount of overall energy and reduces the amount of overhead that is caused by switching delays. As a final step, but certainly not the least important one, we show off some experiments and a prototype of the User-B firmware. Experiments have shown that using the User-B firmware can increase the lifetime of a beacon by as much as 250 percent under conditions where there is a low user-existence frequency and a high energy demand application condition.