A complete mathematical framework for the performance analysis of Bluetooth in Fading Channels

The Bluetooth v2.0+EDR specifications introduce the Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) mode, which permits transmission rates of 2 Mbps and 3 Mbps at the baseband layer. The introduction of EDR schemes enables Bluetooth to support traffic—intensive services, including multimedia applications, bulk data transfers, interactive gaming and so on. However, the actual potentiality of EDR schemes has not been investigated yet. In this technical report, we present a mathematical framework that permits a detailed performance analysis of Bluetooth EDR data connections in fading channels. Conversely to most part of the literature, we distinguish between the transmission of useful and duplicate frames, which are handled in a different manner by the receiving unit. To this end, we define a two—state Markov Chain and we apply the renewal reward theory to determine the expressions of the throughput, energy efficiency and delay performance of the link. As a proof of concept, we present an accurate performance analysis of an asymmetric Bluetooth connection in typical propagation environments. The analysis reveals that best performance are (almost) always obtained by using the longest baseband frames transmitted at 2 Mbps in the low—to—medium signal—to—noise ratio (SNR) region, and at 3 Mbps in the high SNR region. Furthermore, we observed that it is more fruitful assigning the master role to the destination unit rather than to the source node. The model, hence, provides useful indications for the design of advanced segmentation and reassembly strategies and proves to be a valuable tool to gain insights on the aspects that have a major impact on the system performance.