We seek to better understand Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connection-oriented communication on Android devices. We vary packet size, connection interval, and method of communication, and measure the time for communication operations to complete and packet arrival times on a variety of Android devices. The collected observations help to characterize the traffic and service characteristics of BLE and Android devices, respectively. Although BLE is touted as an ideal protocol for many Internet of Things (IoT) applications, the observations suggest that any IoT operations that require latency guarantees might be unable to meet such guarantees if communication includes Android smartphones.
