Improving Bluetooth EDR Data Throughput Using FEC and Interleaving

Wireless communication is inherently vulnerable to errors from the dynamic wireless environment. Link layer packets discarded due to these errors impose a serious limitation on the maximum achievable throughput in the wireless channel. To enhance the overall throughput of wireless communication, it is necessary to deploy link layer transmission schemes that is robust to the errors intrinsic to the wireless channel. In this paper, we investigated the impact of three link layer enhancement techniques on the new Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) mode detailed in the new Bluetooth spec v2.0. We first studied the APT algorithm, and used it to obtain the optimal packet type for different bit error rates. We then evaluated FEC/IFEC coding schemes for the new EDR packet types, assessed their ability to alleviate the impact of burst errors, and discussed the tradeoffs. Using analysis and simulation, we show that the performance of the new Bluetooth EDR mode can be significantly improved when FEC and/or IFEC techniques are employed.