Connectionless Bluetooth Channel Sounding via PAwR for Scalable and Energy-Efficient Ranging
Bluetooth Core Specification v6.0 introduces Channel Sounding (CS) as a high-accuracy ranging primitive for Bluetooth Low Energy, but standard operation requires per-pair connections. This entails multistage initiation and limits concurrent partners per radio. We present a connectionless CS architecture combining the LE CS Test command with Periodic Advertising with Responses (PAwR). A Central Orchestrator, a gateway, and synchronized CS devices provide application-layer coordination, configuration alignment, and result aggregation. Each device derives its role, deterministic random bit generator initialization state, channel sequence, and response slot assignment from its device index and a Peer-to-Peer Assignment Matrix. The matrix can be updated per cycle to reconfigure arbitrary device-to-device pairings within each subevent group. An nRF54L15 proof-of-concept evaluation shows that deterministic channel management eliminates collision-induced outliers under simulated dense-deployment channel overlaps. Compact serialization omits fields recoverable from the measurement configuration, reducing the ranging-data payload by 68%-69% and enabling complete result reporting through PAwR response slots. For one measured partner per 1-s update cycle, the proposed architecture reduces steady-state active charge by up to 25% relative to a fair connected baseline in the optional Real-time Ranging Data mode and up to 48% in the mandatory On-demand Ranging Data mode. For a partner switch, receiving and processing a configuration payload requires approximately 97% less charge than the connected initiation procedure. A component-based 24-h model projects up to 88% lower charge when all four partners are replaced every update, while a timing-based capacity analysis projects up to 14080 active devices per PAwR train for a four-measurement workload.