BLAW: BLE Assisted Wi-Fi in idle listening

Wi-Fi is commonly used in IoT devices but its high energy consumption poses a significant challenge particularly during idle listening. We propose BLAW (BLE-Assisted Wi-Fi), a novel approach that leverages the coexistence of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Wi-Fi in integrated combo modules to reduce power consumption. BLAW enables Wi-Fi devices to enter sleep state while BLE monitors incoming traffic through cross-technology communication. By embedding information via the RTS/CTS mechanism and Wi-Fi MAC address payloads, BLAW improves energy efficiency without modifying Wi-Fi protocols. Our physical layer evaluations using USRP demonstrate BLAW’s reliability. Additionally, we assess the impact of various factors on BLE recognition. Our results demonstrate that BLAW reduces energy consumption, achieving a 64.5% reduction in typical Wi-Fi idle listening energy and a 39.5% improvement over the Wi-Fi PSM mechanism. BLAW offers excellent transparency and deployability making it a promising solution for energy-constrained IoT applications.