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Journal of Mobile Computing, Communications & Mobile Networks Original Research

An Empirical Analysis of Bluetooth Low Energy Reliability Challenges for Offline Messaging Applications

  1. Akanksha Moolshankar Jaiswal Department of MCA, Thakur Institute of Management Studies, Career Development & Research (TIMSCDR) Mumbai
  2. Vivek Shailendra Gupta Department of MCA, Thakur Institute of Management Studies, Career Development & Research (TIMSCDR) Mumbai
  3. Rashmi Vipat Department of MCA, Thakur Institute of Management Studies, Career Development & Research (TIMSCDR) Mumbai

Abstract

In today's hyper-connected world, modern communication relies heavily on centralised internet infrastructure, making robust offline messaging solutions increasingly essential. A crucial vulnerability is revealed by network failures, natural disasters, and distant region deployments: communication breaks down when internet connectivity does. Due to its low power consumption and almost ubiquitous availability in contemporary smartphones, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has become a promising candidate for offline, device-to-device communications. This study presents an empirical analysis of BLE reliability in real-world messaging scenarios through the design and implementation of a secure, hybrid peer-to-peer chat application for Android. The technology, which is protected by end-to-end RSA-2048 encryption, combines Firebase cloud services for online scenarios with BLE for offline communication. The validity of the hybrid architecture as a whole is confirmed by our implementation, which effectively exhibits user authentication with 100% success rate, contact discovery with 95% matching accuracy, and cryptographic operations averaging 45 ms per message. However, extensive empirical testing showed that the BLE communication layer has significant reliability problems. Message transmission over BLE recorded a 0% success rate in all test scenarios, including both controlled and high-interference situations, although device detection achieved a 70% success rate and connection formation reached 60%. The BLE Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) protocol's basic architectural inadequacies with the requirements of real-time, bidirectional messaging are the cause of this ongoing failure. This study provides a functional prototype, a comparative protocol analysis, developer recommendations, performance benchmarks, and a critical root cause analysis. According to the results, reliable offline communication may require significant protocol-level optimizations or hybrid communication architectures that combine different protocols for data transfer with BLE for discovery.

Keywords

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