Demystifying the Performance of Bluetooth Mesh: Experimental Evaluation and Optimization
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Demystifying the Performance of Bluetooth Mesh: Experimental Evaluation and Optimization Adnan Aijaz, Aleksandar Stanoev, Dominic London, and Victor Marot Bristol Research and Innovation Laboratory, Toshiba Europe Ltd., Bristol, United Kingdom fi[email protected] Abstract—Mesh connectivity is attractive for Internet-of- Advertising bearer GATT bearer Model Layer Advertising bearer (not relayed) Things (IoT) applications from various perspectives. The recent Foundation Model Layer Friendship messaging Bluetooth mesh specification provides a full-stack mesh net- Access Layer working solution, potentially for thousands of nodes. Although Node Bluetooth mesh has been adopted for various IoT applications, its Upper Transport Layer Relay node performance aspects are not extensively investigated in literature. Lower Transport Layer This paper provides an experimental evaluation of Bluetooth Friend node Network Layer mesh (using Nordic nRF52840 devices) with an emphasis on those Bearer Layer Low power node aspects which are not well-investigated in literature. Such aspects BLE Core Specification include evaluation of unicast and group modes, performance under different traffic patterns, impact of message segmentation, Fig. 1. System architecture and protocol stack of Bluetooth mesh. and most importantly, latency performance for perfect reliability. The paper also investigates performance enhancement of Blue- Despite growing success of Bluetooth mesh in industry, tooth mesh based on different techniques including parametric academic studies on its performance aspects portray a mixed adjustments, extended advertisements (introduced in Bluetooth 5.0), power control, and customized relaying. Results provide picture. One simulation-based study [3] identifies scalability insights into system-level performance of Bluetooth mesh while as its main limitation. Another study following analytic ap- clarifying various important issues identified in recent studies. proach [4] claims configuration of wide range of parameters Index Terms—Bluetooth, BLE, flooding, IoT, mesh, multi-hop, as the main challenge. Yet another study [5], conducting power control, wireless networks. experimental evaluation, suggests that Bluetooth mesh is better suited to applications with sporadic traffic patterns. On the I. INTRODUCTION other hand, various aspects of Bluetooth mesh performance Mesh networking, which is a key enabler for Internet-of- remain unexplored. One example is the latency performance Things (IoT), is a promising solution for range extension of Bluetooth mesh as most existing studies are heavily focused and improved resilience. Bluetooth is a prominent short-range toward reliability. Bluetooth mesh stack offers a number of connectivity technology which has evolved tremendously over configuration options at different layers that provide the capa- the last decade. Bluetooth mesh (released in 2017) [1] is bility of perfect reliability. Hence, the latency associated with the latest addition to the IoT connectivity landscape. The perfect reliability requires deeper investigation, particularly Bluetooth mesh specification provides a full-stack mesh net- under different communication patterns. The role of Bluetooth working solution for IoT. Bluetooth mesh provides a simple 5.0 for Bluetooth mesh as well as performance enhancement and efficient wireless networking solution potentially provid- techniques are not well-investigated. This necessitates further 1 ing mesh connectivity to thousands of nodes without any experimental evaluation of Bluetooth mesh and performance coordination. In a concurrent development, the Bluetooth 5.0 insights. Investigating performance trade-offs for Bluetooth standard (released in 2016) [2] introduces various new features mesh is crucial to asses its suitability for new near-real-time arXiv:2106.04230v1 [cs.NI] 8 Jun 2021 for IoT including improved data transmission modes, enhance and non-real-time IoT applications. This is also important as frequency hopping, and new Physical (PHY) layers. Bluetooth-based proprietary industrial solutions (e.g., [6] and Bluetooth mesh has been adopted for various IoT appli- [7]) are not compatible with the Bluetooth mesh specification. cations including home/building automation, smart lighting, and industrial wireless sensor networks. In the smart lighting A. Related Work community, Bluetooth mesh is recognized as the killer of the lighting switch due to its distributed control capabilities. Yin et al. [8] conducted a comprehensive survey of Blue- Recently, Silvair2 has deployed one of the largest Bluetooth tooth mesh and Bluetooth 5.0. Rondon et al. [3] investigated mesh networks comprising more than 3500 nodes spread performance of Bluetooth mesh, in terms of reliability, scal- across 17 floors of an office building. ability and delay, through simulations on a grid topology. Hernandez-Solana et al. [4] adopted an analytic approach 1 Bluetooth mesh can support up to 32767 nodes in a network with a for investigating interaction of different Bluetooth mesh pa- maximum of 126 hops. 2https://silvair-media.s3.amazonaws.com/media/filer public/c8/cf/ rameters. Di Marco et al. [9] conducted simulations-based c8cfa7fb-278c-450b-89c6-6c5137ca4fc4/25 02 silvair emc casestudy.pdf evaluation of different data transfer modes of Bluetooth 5.0. advDelay Some studies have conducted experimental evaluation of advInterval advInterval advDelay Advertising Advertising Advertising ADV_EXT_IND_PDU Channel Bluetooth mesh. Leon and Nabi [5] evaluated packet deliv- Event Event Event 37 A ery performance under a convergecast traffic pattern where Ta ADV ADV ADV Channel Advertising PDU PDU PDU 38 all nodes periodically generate data packets for a common procedure Channel Channel Channel 37 38 39 destination. Baert et al. [10] investigated latency bounds with Channel 39 varying number of hops and relays. Jurgens¨ et al. [11] inves- scanInterval T Ts scanWindow scanWindow scanWindow Secondary AUX_ADV_IND tigated application of Bluetooth mesh for indoor localization Data channel Channel Channel Channel 37 38 39 Extended advertising through an experimental setup. Scanning procedure B. Contributions Fig. 2. Illustration of advertising and scanning procedures in Bluetooth mesh. Against this background and existing literature, this pa- PDUs. It also provides acknowledged/unacknowledged mes- per has two main objectives. The first is to conduct ex- sage delivery. The upper transport layer handles encryption, perimental evaluation of Bluetooth mesh with an emphasis decryption, and authentication functions. It also handles con- on performance aspects which are not well-investigated in trol messages which are exchanged between peer nodes. The literature. The second is to investigate potential enhance- access layer acts as an intermediary between the model layers ment/optimization techniques while providing insights into and upper transport layer by providing the upper transport system-level performance. Our experimental evaluation aims layer with a standard format. The foundation model layer to address the following important questions. implements models related to management of the Bluetooth 1) What type of communication/traffic patterns are effi- mesh network. The model layer defines models that provide a ciently supported by Bluetooth mesh? standardized operation for typical use-cases. Models can also 2) What is the latency performance of Bluetooth mesh for be custom-defined. There are three types of models: server perfect reliability, under different modes of operation? model, client model, and control model. 3) Can the performance of Bluetooth mesh be enhanced Fig. 1 also shows the architecture of Bluetooth mesh. The through simple techniques and parametric adjustments? term node is used for any device which is part of the Bluetooth 4) What kind of IoT applications can be supported by mesh network. A device becomes part of the mesh network Bluetooth mesh? through the provisioning process. All nodes in the mesh net- We conduct experimental evaluation of Bluetooth mesh work are capable of transmitting/receiving messages; however, based on a testbed of Nordic nRF528403 devices. The key some optional features provide additional capabilities. The relay nodes distinguishing aspects of our evaluation include different com- are able to retransmit received messages over the munication patterns, different modes of operation, varying advertising bearers. Based on relaying, a message can traverse low power node traffic loads, impact of message segmentation, and latency the whole multi-hop mesh network. A (LPN) performance for 100% reliability. In terms of performance is power-constrained and must use its energy resources as optimization of Bluetooth mesh, we investigate the role of efficiently as possible. LPNs operate in a mesh network with friend node advertising/scanning parameter adjustment, extended adver- significantly reduced duty cycle. A assists the tisements, dynamic power control techniques, and varying operation of LPNs in the mesh network by storing messages number of relays, from a system-level perspective. for these nodes and forwarding upon request. B. Managed Flooding II. OVERVIEW OF BLUETOOTH MESH TECHNOLOGY Bluetooth mesh utilizes a managed flooding approach for A. Protocol Stack and Architecture communication. The managed flooding mechanism is com- Fig. 1 shows the protocol stack of Bluetooth mesh technol- pletely asynchronous and provides a simple approach to ogy. Bluetooth mesh is built over the Bluetooth low energy propagate