Bluetooth smart: An enabling technology for the Internet of Things

The past couple of years have seen a heightened interest in the Internet of Things (IoT), transcending industry, academia and government. As with new ideas that hold immense potential, the optimism of IoT has also exaggerated the underlying technologies well before they can mature into a sustainable ecosystem. While 6LoWPAN has emerged as a disruptive technology that brings IP capability to networks of resource constrained devices, a suitable radio technology for this device class is still debatable. In the recent past, Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) — a subset of the Bluetooth v4.0 stack — has surfaced as an appealing alternative that provides a low-power and loosely coupled mechanism for sensor data collection with ubiquitous units (e.g., smartphones and tablets). When Bluetooth 4.0 was first released, it was not targeted for IP-connected devices but for communication between two neighboring peers. However, the latest release of Bluetooth 4.2 offers features that makes Bluetooth LE a competitive candidate among the available low-power communication technologies in the IoT space. In this paper, we discuss the novel features of Bluetooth LE and its applicability in 6LoWPAN networks. We also highlight important research questions and pointers for potential improvement for its greater impact.