Bluetooth Low Energy: An alternative technology for VANET applications

Vehicles are getting increasingly connected. Several technologies have emerged over the last decade that allow cars to communicate with each other and with the Internet. In this paper we propose to use the new Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) standard as an alternative technology to exchange data between vehicles. By the means of experiments we show that smartphones with BLE radios can be used to send information at low latency from one car to another even while driving. A communication range of up to 100m can be achieved depending on the scenario and environment. Those promising first results are then used as basis for discussion to identify the potential of BLE for different types of vehicular applications.