Bluetooth radio network performance: measurement results and simulation models

When designing new communication systems, results from simulations determine a large part of the system parameters. As simulations simplify reality according to the investigated aspects, the results obtained strongly depend on the assumptions made for the simplifications. This paper now presents real-life measurement results obtained in a Bluetooth radio network testbed and compares these results with models used in radio network simulations. Three scenarios have been considered: the noise limited scenario, Bluetooth interfered by microwave ovens and Bluetooth interfered by IEEE 802.11b. It is shown that when including free space propagation, Rayleigh fading and the antenna orientation (with 3 dB between aligned and orthogonal) a good simulative approximation of the noise limited behaviour is possible. In case of interference the distance to the interferer as well as its time-frequency behaviour has to be considered: For IEEE 802.11b a 17 MHz bandwidth and an activity according to its relative throughput should be modelled, for the microwave oven a time limited activity over 61 carriers with a frequency dependent interference power.