Bluetooth RSSI Signal Chaining for Mesh Network Analysis

Mesh Networking over time has gained increased traction within the Internet of Things. It enables mass collection of data while also establishing new signal transmission pathways to avoid unnecessary depletion factors such as Material Penetration or Environmental factors like Weather generated interference. However, Mesh Networks have a lower power consumption efficiency due to the transceiver nodes power division. This has a direct impact on the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) measurement. This power difference can, therefore, result in inaccuracies for applications that employ an RSSI Based location algorithm for user tracking to occur as these are designed for Peer-to-Peer (P2P) communication. Additionally, through chaining the source RSSI to any given endpoint it also becomes possible to provide an estimated endpoint destination distance measurement which could be applied for user location services within Emergency Response situations. This study, therefore, investigates the offset generated by Mesh networking. An average loss of 5.75 dBm for reception and an average loss of 6.577dBm for transmission was identified within the bridging node due to the power split. Additionally, when chaining the RSSI across 30.48 m, this offset was found to present an average decrease of power signal strength efficiency of 202% within the system setup when compared to that of the P2P setup.