Bluetooth Low Energy based Communication Framework for Intra Vehicle Wireless Sensor Networks

In modern vehicles Controller Area Network (CAN) bus has significant importance to transfer data from sensors to Engine Control Unit (ECU) by employing two wire system. CAN bus is very efficient in terms of throughput and reliability but it requires very careful sensor deployment and wiring. In this paper, we propose low cost and energy efficient communication between sensor nodes and ECU using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) within Vehicular Ad Hoc Network by employing Intra Vehicle Wireless Sensor Network. BLE can be readily employed in densely urban environment for inter vehicular (up to 50m range) and intra vehicular (up to 10m range) wireless communication. We have compared BLE and CAN bus for communicating actual engine data between ECUs and sensors, and ECU and Onboard Unit (OBU), in terms of energy efficiency, throughput, latency and coverage area. Proposed BLE based system exhibited very high successful packet delivery ratios for static and driving scenarios with acceptable average RSSI values of at least -10dBm. During extensive tests, BLE CC2540/CC2541 based system also achieved very low current consumption (in microamperes) and longer battery life time (around six months on a standard coin battery).