An Exponential Back-off Algorithm Based Interference Avoidance Strategy for Bluetooth Low Energy against Wideband Interference

Abstract

Wireless connection reliability is always a top priority in Internet of Things systems, especially in a harsh electro-magnetic environment. As a prominent wireless communication protocol in the 2.4 GHz frequency band, Bluetooth Low Energy always has compatibility challenges with wideband protocols working in the same frequency band such as Wi-Fi, In this paper, we present a lightweight strategy for Bluetooth Low Energy devices to cope with the compatibility issues with wideband interference. The strategy is based on the exponential back-off algorithm and is implemented mostly in the Bluetooth Low Energy application layer. The results of the experiments show that the strategy can deal with both static and dynamic wideband interference, reducing packet loss rates to around 3 % and 5 %, respectively.