Investigating the Feasibility of Time Synchronization in Bluetooth Low Energy Networks: Protocol Design and Experimental Validation

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has gained widespread adoption as the wireless protocol for Internet of Things (IoT) devices, encompassing various domains such as medical, personal, and technical applications. To facilitate specific applications that rely on a shared and accurate timebasis, the research and testing of a shared timebasis protocol for BLE has been undertaken. The primary objective of this thesis is to design and research the possibility of a Bluetooth Low Energy time synchronization protocol capable of being used at BSS in their pain research. Having a synchronized timebasis will allow for faster analyzing of evoked potentials in EEG measurements. To validate the effectiveness and possibilities of a protocol, experimental testing is conducted, evaluating performance of the Silabs Explorer kit in terms of synchronization accuracy, and reliability. The results obtained will provide valuable insights into the feasibility of time synchronization in Bluetooth Low Energy networks. The suggested protocol is divided in 3 stages. A connection phase, where the offset of the internal timers is corrected. A start-up phase, where the expected drift is measured and extrapolated to adjust the internal timers. And an active Resync phase, to keep the internal timers in sync indefinitely.