Concurrent operation of Bluetooth low energy and ANT wireless protocols with an embedded controller

Abstract

With the introduction of low-power wireless technologies, new applicationsin the healthcare, fitness and home entertainment markets emergethrough the use of ultra low-power sensors. These devices are designed torun for years on a single coin-cell battery.ANT and Bluetooth Low Energy are two low-power protocols that emergeas competitors in this market. The ability to combine these in a single systemnot only takes away the element of choice from the manufacturers, but alsoprovides compatibility between the two protocols. An ANT-enabled devicecan be coupled to a Bluetooth network, with the benefit of connecting tonon-ANT central devices, such as smartphones, tablets and laptops.In this thesis, the co-existence of these two protocols is discussed. Animplementation with two distinct radios for each protocol, controlled by asingle embedded microcontroller, is presented. The implementation is testedwith regards to packet loss with a simple test application. Test results showthat the obtained packet loss cannot be correlated to the co-existence of thetwo protocols.