Determining the Impact of Metallic Obstacles on Bluetooth Transmission to Enhance Indoor Location Determination

Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS) research for indoor environments identifies Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) as a prospective low-cost technological solution. BLE offers an alternative approach to identify obstructions that impact indoor location accuracy. However, in indoor environments, numerous obstacles, such as furniture, walls, partitions, etc. impact Bluetooth transmission negatively. This study determined the impact of metallic obstructions on Bluetooth transmission within a building. This investigation expands on our previous evaluation of RTLS technologies, RTLS constraints, and an energy-efficient design model for indoor location via sensors. According to the results, metallic obstructions in the Bluetooth transmission path have a negative impact on the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) levels. This observation is valid for obstructions in the transmission path and when the obstruction is not in the transmission path. The majority of RSSI levels recorded were clustered around a small number of RSSI levels. Therefore, a total of 8812 RSSI levels were considered for the comparisons. The main contribution of this study identifies that metallic obstructions impacts Bluetooth transmission. Furthermore, it was observed that there is a correlation between the distance and RSSI levels recorded. Also, lower levels were observed when metal obstructions were placed in the transmission path. Further research includes using a link quality indicator to enhance location determination in a dynamic environment and increasing the coverage area for the experiment.