Application of Bluetooth low energy protocol for communication in mobile networks

This paper treats on issues related to Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) communication protocol and its application to create mobile ad-hoc networks. The purpose of this article is to investigate applicability of BLE protocol in practical scenarios like population involvement in Military Operations in a Smart City - scenario proposed by NATO IST-147 group. The authors prepared a test environment and a mobile application for Android operating system. Both of them were used to conduct research on energy consumption, communication range and data transmission efficiency. Additionally, outdoor tests were performed to verify quality of communication via BLE in various types of terrain.