Bluetooth Communication Leveraging Ultra-Low Power Radio Design
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Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks Review Bluetooth Communication Leveraging Ultra-Low Power Radio Design Omar Abdelatty , Xing Chen, Abdullah Alghaihab and David Wentzloff * Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; [email protected] (O.A.); [email protected] (X.C.); [email protected] (A.A.) * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: Energy-efficient wireless connectivity plays an important role in scaling both battery-less and battery-powered Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices. The power consumption in these devices is dominated by the wireless transceivers which limit the battery’s lifetime. Different strategies have been proposed to tackle these issues both in physical and network layers. The ultimate goal is to lower the power consumption without sacrificing other important metrics like latency, transmission range and robust operation under the presence of interference. Joint efforts in designing energy-efficient wireless protocols and low-power radio architectures result in achieving sub-100 µW operation. One technique to lower power is back-channel (BC) communication which allows ultra-low power (ULP) receivers to communicate efficiently with commonly used wireless standards like Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) while utilizing the already-deployed infrastructure. In this paper, we present a review of BLE back-channel communication and its forms. Additionally, a comprehensive survey of ULP radio design trends and techniques in both Bluetooth transmitters and receivers is presented. Keywords: Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE); Internet-of-Things (IoT); back-channel communication; Citation: Abdelatty, O.; Chen, X.; star network; ultra-low power; radio design trade-offs; wakeup receiver Alghaihab, A.; Wentzloff, D. Bluetooth Communication Leveraging Ultra-Low Power Radio Design. J. Sens. Actuator Netw. 2021, 1. Introduction 10, 31. https://doi.org/10.3390/ Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) is the leading protocol for short-range, low power wire- jsan10020031 less communication networks [1]. Wireless short-range technologies like BLE support tens of meters of maximum distance between devices for a variety of applications including Academic Editor: Atis Elsts wireless sensor networks and the majority of the low-power devices used in the Internet of Things (IoT) (Figure1a). The BLE standard has a competitive advantage over other IoT- Received: 16 February 2021 compatible wireless technologies because of its ability to communicate directly with smart Accepted: 19 April 2021 Published: 26 April 2021 phones, computers and tablets. Since consumer electronics are ubiquitous, BLE-enabled IoT devices can be seamlessly connected to personal area networks without the need for Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral additional wireless access points. The use cases for BLE have proven to be valuable in with regard to jurisdictional claims in different IoT applications including medical health monitoring, automated emergency published maps and institutional affil- calls, smart tags, home automation and in-vehicle networks. For environmental and in- iations. dustrial monitoring systems, BLE beacon tags can also be used for indoor localization [2,3], identification and tracking of objects and personnel. In such applications, the power consumption of the device is widely recognized as the limiting factor to scaling the number of battery-powered IoT devices [4]. Assuming a scenario where a billion devices are deployed with an expected battery lifetime of 1 year, Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. this would result in replacing 2.7 million batteries each day. In reality, this unacceptable This article is an open access article number imposes significant logistical burdens in operational deployments and reduces distributed under the terms and the utility of IoT devices in different sectors. Batteries represent a logistically prohibitive conditions of the Creative Commons maintenance problem that requires a large maintenance workforce, presenting a daunting Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// challenge for individual facilities where maintenance resources are already at capacity. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ Therefore, the battery is needed to last as long as the life of the product, which can be on 4.0/). the order of 10 years for an embedded device performing signal processing and wireless J. Sens. Actuator Netw. 2021, 10, 31. https://doi.org/10.3390/jsan10020031 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jsan J. Sens. Actuator Netw. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 17 challenge for individual facilities where maintenance resources are already at capacity. Therefore, the battery is needed to last as long as the life of the product, which can be on J. Sens. Actuator Netw. 2021, 10the, 31 order of 10 years for an embedded device performing signal processing and wireless2 of 17 communication [5]. Current battery lifetimes of BLE sensors are typically <1 year, far short of the 10-year target for other IoT protocols such as cellular narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) and LoRacommunication devices. However, [5]. Current reducing battery the lifetimespower consumption of BLE sensors and are typicallythe operating<1 year supply, far short volt- ages enableof the 10-year the design target of for self-powered other IoT protocols IoT devices such in as which cellular energy narrowband harvesting IoT (NB-IoT) technolo- and LoRa devices. However, reducing the power consumption and the operating supply gies can be used to power the node from the environment [6]. One growing application in voltages enable the design of self-powered IoT devices in which energy harvesting tech- this fieldnologies is body-powered can be used to power wearable the node devices from thein environmentmobile health [6]. technologies One growing applicationwhich allow remotein thisand fieldcontinuous is body-powered health monitoring wearable devices as shown in mobile in Figure health 1b technologies [7]. Another which application allow in theremote industrial and continuoussector is in health machine monitoring health monitoring as shown in Figure(MHM),1b [where7]. Another self-powered application ULP sensorsin thecan industrial be deployed sector to is inobserve machine specific health monitoringabnormal (MHM),patterns where in the self-powered monitored ULPphysi- cal/mechanicalsensors can signals be deployed of a machine to observe for specific early failure abnormal detection. patterns Low-power in the monitored operation physi- fa- cilitatescal/mechanical harvesting of signals the machine’s of a machine vibratio for earlynal failureenergy detection. using piezo-electric Low-power operationmaterials to chargefacilitates super-capacitors harvesting which of the machine’s are used vibrationalto power the energy sensor using [8]. piezo-electric materials to charge super-capacitors which are used to power the sensor [8]. Wearable Health Monitoring Shirt 1. Flexible Antennas 2. Energy Harvesting 3. Sensors 4. Low-Power Electronics (a) (b) FigureFigure 1. (a) 1.Wide(a) Wide range range of consumer of consumer IoT IoTapplications, applications, (b) ( bself-powered) self-powered wireless wireless sensor sensor systems used inused health in health monitoring monitoring purposes. purposes. Typically,Typically, the theRF RFradio radio accounts accounts for for a a significant significant portion portion of of the the aggregate aggregate power power profile pro- of the device. Thus, each data transmission operation performed by a battery-powered file of the device. Thus, each data transmission operation performed by a battery-powered node shortens its subsequent lifetime, limiting the amount of data transmittable before node needingshortens to its recharge/replace subsequent lifetime, the battery. limiting In a typicalthe amount IoT application, of data transmittable it is reasonable before to needingassume to recharge/replace the radio consumes the 60–90% battery. of theIn operatinga typical powerIoT application, budget [9]. 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A good example advertising interval (TI) defined as the time between two successive transmission events, application is a tracking device that establishes a Bluetooth connection to a smartphone. the intendedUsing acommon battery CR2031lifetime coin can battery be estima withted an energy(preferably density >10 of years). 653 mWh, A thegood required example applicationaverage is power a tracking consumption device for that a 20-year establishes lifetime a Bluetooth is 3.7 µW and connect the TIion can beto calculateda smartphone. as Usingshown a common