A Bluetooth Low Energy real-time protocol for industrial wireless mesh networks

Low energy consumption and low cost are some of the primary issues that have to be addressed in Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (IWSN). Such networks are being increasingly used to acquire sensory data that need to be processed in real-time. The Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol is an attractive solution for implementing low-cost IWSN with reduced energy consumption and high flexibility. However, the current BLE standard does not provide real-time support for data packets and is limited to a star topology. This paper presents a real-time protocol for industrial wireless mesh networks that is developed on top of the BLE and overcomes these limitations. The paper describes the protocol and provides analysis and experimental results.