Surpassing bluetooth low energy limitations on distance determination

While Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is emerging in personal wireless network communication, aimed at applications such as healthcare, fitness and many others, there are still some pitfalls, namely concerning reliability and accuracy for its application in range sensing areas. BLE is designed for ultra low power consumption, ideal for applications requiring episodic or periodic transfer of small amounts of data, such as tags for identification and tracking of assets. These tags are physical devices associated with the assets being tracked, which should be as small and light as possible for the widest applicability. Distance to the tag is of paramount importance in identifying the nearest tag when several tags are present. The method of measuring distances is based on Radio Signal Strength (RSS), which we've determined is not accurate when using BLE. The paper presents the methods being used to enhance the accuracy of distance reading using BLE.