Refinements to the packet error rate upper bound for Bluetooth networks

The Bluetooth frequency hop sequence is uniformly distributed asymptotically but generally distributed otherwise. We present an upper bound on the Bluetooth packet error rate for single-slot packets that incorporates two inherent, short-term dependencies in the Bluetooth frequency hop sequence. First, the hop frequencies are chosen from a limited subset of the 79 Bluetooth frequencies that depends on past frequencies used. Second, subsequent packet frequency choices are usually selected from mutually exclusive subsets. Higher packet error rates result from these dependencies and from the limited range of the frequency hops. Our improved upper bound on the packet error rate allows more accurate Bluetooth performance analysis.