Message transfer framework for mobile devices using bluetooth low energy

Despite the increasing availability of mobile devices offering handheld peer to peer communication capabilities, interoperability between heterogeneous mobile device platforms is hampered by the security requirements of their underlying operating systems. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) was introduced so that mobile devices could read from sensors with fewer security requirements, presenting an opportunity to allow disparate devices to connect and transfer data. This paper presents a message transfer framework to facilitate arbitrary data transfer using the GATT mechanisms as provided by BLE in the Bluetooth 4.0 specification. The provided implementation library and applications for Android along with a proof of concept application for iOS 8 sustain reliable transfer speeds of 1 KB/s, allowing for a 100KB payload (a small picture, for example) to be sent wirelessly between an Android and iOS device in just over a minute.