{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,11]],"date-time":"2026-01-11T19:58:30Z","timestamp":1768161510500,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,24]],"date-time":"2021-03-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1616544000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is a popular wireless communication protocol heavily used in Internet of Things applications. Nowadays, robustness is considered a key requirement in wireless communication. However, radio interference from various sources may affect the performance of BLE devices, leading to channel congestion. Therefore, there is a broadly recognized need of methodologies capable of sensing and avoiding interference. In this paper, two improvements at the data link layer for interference detection and channel selection are proposed to enhance the BLE connection robustness. This paper also presents a wide range of experimental evaluations aiming at validating the improvements and providing insights on both these improvements. Particularly, the communication performance of the BLE link layer is assessed in terms of channel usage distribution, supervision timeout ratio (STR) and packet loss rate (PLR) under different interference environments. Results from these experiments (reliability over 97% and 99% under two different harsh environments) highlight the effects of both improvements on the BLE robustness. Meanwhile, the authority of scheduling the whole mechanism is given to the link layer and even the higher application layer. This paper provides a set of solutions for BLE confronting interference in link layer.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s21072257","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,24]],"date-time":"2021-03-24T21:36:51Z","timestamp":1616621811000},"page":"2257","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":21,"title":["Bluetooth Low Energy Interference Awareness Scheme and Improved Channel Selection Algorithm for Connection Robustness"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6709-8813","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bozheng","family":"Pang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"M-Group, DistriNet, Department of Computer Science, KU Leuven Bruges Campus, 8200 Bruges, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4150-4144","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kristof","family":"T\u2019Jonck","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"M-Group, DistriNet, Department of Computer Science, KU Leuven Bruges Campus, 8200 Bruges, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7782-3553","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tim","family":"Claeys","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"M-Group, WaveCoRE, Department of Electrical Engineering, KU Leuven Bruges Campus, 8200 Bruges, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5077-4237","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Davy","family":"Pissoort","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"M-Group, WaveCoRE, Department of Electrical Engineering, KU Leuven Bruges Campus, 8200 Bruges, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2623-9055","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hans","family":"Hallez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"M-Group, DistriNet, Department of Computer Science, KU Leuven Bruges Campus, 8200 Bruges, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7902-8537","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jeroen","family":"Boydens","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"M-Group, DistriNet, Department of Computer Science, KU Leuven Bruges Campus, 8200 Bruges, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"15202","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2018.2810837","article-title":"Open Knowledge Accessing Method in IoT-Based Hospital Information System for Medical Record Enrichment","volume":"6","author":"Xie","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Peralta, G., Iglesias-Urkia, M., Barcelo, M., Gomez, R., Moran, A., and Bilbao, J. 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