Experimental Validation of a Bluetooth-Based Speech Audio Broadcasting Model

The concept of broadcasting audio using Bluetooth has been standardized as Auracast. It enables a variety of use cases, both for personal use as well as in public venues. Due to its novelty, available research work about the technology and its performance, is limited. This paper provides a performance evaluation of the listening experience on Bluetooth-based broadcast audio streams, by performing measurements on a testbed that can set up an audio link between a broadcaster and receiver on Bluetooth-capable hardware. The testbed can introduce variable attenuation on the audio link and inject nearby interference from a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connection. The measurements are compared against simulation results from a model that was designed and implemented as part of previous work. A comparable performance between the testbed and model is shown to be achieved for different attenuation settings. Next to this, the work in this paper presents an extension to the model that enables it to provide accurate simulation results for a broadcast audio stream operating in proximity to multiple BLE connections.