Overhead and Segmentation Mismatch Effect on Bluetooth WPAN Performance

Abstract

Currently, Bluetooth is the most widely used technology for Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN). Quality-of-Service (QoS) support is critical to ensure bandwidth maximization for mobile applications based on this WPAN technology. The overhead introduced by the different layers of Bluetooth protocol may have a serious impact on WPAN performance. However, most studies of Bluetooth performance neglect this overhead and assume that data are directly transmitted over L2CAP (Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol) or even HCI (Host Controller Interface) layers. In fact, this option is not feasible in most Bluetooth applications, as they integrate actual devices that implement a particular Bluetooth profile, usually SPP (Serial Port Profile). The use of profiles cannot be disregarded as they guarantee the interoperability between devices from different vendors. The aim of this paper is to characterise the performance of a Bluetooth WPAN (specifically the end-to-end delay and the throughput) when profiles are utilised. This study takes into account the overhead added by the protocols taking part in the transmission of user data. This paper also explores the effect of segmentation mismatch that may appear when the maximum size for data in each layer of the architecture is different. The analysis has been focused on SPP and PAN (Personal Area Networks) profiles. In the case of the PAN profile, the study concludes that the network performance decreases for user data sizes greater than 1,472 bytes, since the excessive overhead added by the network layer is increased by the IP (Internet Proto-col) fragmentation. In the case of SPP, an inappropriate choice of the maximum data unit at RFCOMM (Radio Frequency Communication for Serial Cable Emulation Protocol based on ETSI TS 07.10) and L2CAP layers can also heavily affect the transmission delay.