Development of a Bluetooth Low Energy Educational Framework

Abstract

This project consisted of two tasks. The first one was to provide a theoretical documentation of the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) device whose first generational versions emerged in 2010. The theoretical documentation basically covers the protocol stack of the device, which consists of the Controller, Host and Application layer, all of which govern how communication should ensue. The controller layer is the point of BLE to BLE interface, while the host layers have to do with the internal logics, security management, data storage and manipulation, client and server role of the device. The application layer is the user to BLE interface.

The second task was to create an Android mobile application to establish a communication link with the BLE peripherals. The specimen BLE module used in this project was the serial Bluetooth 4.0 module from the vendor TinySine, which was supported on the Arduino plat-form. The generic attribute GATT of the BLE is responsible for data storage, and to access the GATT from application programs the service and characteristic UUID is required.

This is a framework for educational purposes. The future trend is that the BLE peripheral used in this project would be replaced by BLE sensors in similar projects, establishing communication links with a central device and reporting their respective measurements to them.