Design, Implementation and Practical Evaluation of an Opportunistic Communications Protocol Based on Bluetooth Mesh...

The increasing proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices has created a growing need for more efficient communication networks, especially in areas where continuous connectivity is unstable or unavailable. Opportunistic networks have emerged as a possible solution in such scenarios, allowing for intermittent and decentralized data sharing. This article presents a novel communication protocol that uses Bluetooth 5 and the libp2p framework to enable decentralized and opportunistic communications among IoT devices. The protocol provides dynamic peer discovery and decentralized management, resulting in a more flexible and robust IoT network infrastructure. The performance of the proposed architecture was evaluated through experiments in both controlled and industrial scenarios, with a particular emphasis on latency and on the impact of the presence of obstacles. The obtained results show that the protocol has the ability to improve data transfer in environments with limited connectivity, making it adequate for both urban and rural areas, as well as for challenging environments such as shipyards. Moreover, the presented findings conclude that the protocol works well in situations with minimal signal obstruction and short distances, like homes, where average latency values of about 8 s have been achieved with no losses. Furthermore, the protocol can also be used in industrial scenarios, even when metal obstacles increase signal attenuation, and over long distances, where average latency values of about 8.5 s have been obtained together with packet losses of less than 5%.