Topic / Project # Android/iOS smartphone AWS IoT (MQTT)/Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) gateway

发布时间：2025-07-21

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Topic / Project # Android/iOS smartphone AWS IoT (MQTT)/Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) gateway

Project Definition

Problem Statement

Traditional BLE devices typically rely on PCs or embedded gateways to connect to the cloud, which lack mobility, are costly to deploy, and are unsuitable for large-scale implementation. To address this issue, we propose developing a smartphone-based application that solves the problems of BLE data cloud integration, complex configuration, and limited mobility. This lightweight, flexible, and visual mobile gateway will enable real-time and secure transmission of BLE data to AWS IoT Core.

Project Aim and Objectives

Aim: To develop an Android or iOS application that enables end-to-end communication from BLE to MQTT to AWS IoT Core, with support for graphical configuration and performance monitoring.

Objectives: Implement BLE device scanning, connection, and data interaction. Integrate an MQTT client to support communication with AWS IoT Core. Provide a graphical interface for configuring GATT and cloud parameters. Display real-time sensor data in charts. Evaluate network latency, throughput, and energy consumption.

Proposed Contribution / Innovation

This project will migrate the BLE-to-AWS IoT Core communication chain entirely to the smartphone platform, creating a plug-and-play mobile gateway. Innovations include: Integrating BLE communication and MQTT cloud connectivity on the smartphone. Visual configuration of BLE GATT and AWS parameters to reduce setup complexity. Real-time data upload to the cloud and optional storage in S3 Bucket. Support for automatic switching between WiFi and cellular networks, with performance comparison.

Scope and Limitations

Scope: Implement BLE and MQTT integrated communication. Support GATT UUID, custom services, and characteristic configuration. Develop a visual UI to display BLE status and data curves. Use AWS IoT Core and S3 for cloud-side data storage.

Limitations: Supports either Android or iOS platform only. Does not include edge computing or large-scale device management. AWS-side features like Lambda and AI processing are not within the project scope.

Motivation & Contribution

Traditional BLE–cloud gateways are typically based on embedded hardware, which often involves complex setup procedures and lacks portability. To overcome these limitations, this project proposes a smartphone-based （Android/iOS） BLE–MQTT gateway that integrates directly with AWS IoT Core. Through a user-friendly interface, users can configure BLE services, input AWS endpoints and security credentials, publish sensor data in JSON format to the sensors/ble topic, and receive control commands from the commands/ble topic.

This project develops a BLE–MQTT gateway that connects mobile devices to AWS cloud services, addressing the limitations of embedded solutions in terms of flexibility and mobility. To ensure seamless communication, the system uses MQTT to transmit data from BLE sensors to AWS IoT Core. Furthermore, incoming sensor data is automatically routed to Amazon S3 using IoT Rules, stored in a structured format (e.g., year/month/day) to support scalable data management. In addition, a graphical interface allows users to configure BLE characteristics and cloud credentials, while visualizing real-time sensor readings. Finally, the system’s reliability and efficiency are validated through a comprehensive evaluation of end-to-end latency, throughput, and mobile power consumption.

Gap Analysis & Requirements

Current BLE–cloud integration solutions are largely microcontroller-based, with limited flexibility, static configuration, and poor support for real-time monitoring or AWS-native features. These constraints hinder scalability, adaptability, and ease of deployment in dynamic IoT environments.

To address these gaps, our system must support BLE scanning and bidirectional MQTT communication with QoS level 1. It should offer a graphical interface for configuring BLE characteristics and AWS credentials and provide real-time visual feedback on connection status and sensor data （refreshed at 1Hz）. The system must also support automatic message routing to S3 for long-term structured storage and be compatible across Android and iOS platforms with a secure and extensible architecture.

Background

Literature Review

Previous studies have widely adopted MQTT for transmitting BLE sensor data to the cloud due to its lightweight and low-latency characteristics. While many implementations rely on embedded platforms like ESP32, which are commonly used to publish sensor readings to AWS IoT Core, they often lack mobility and ease of configuration. Some research has also demonstrated BLE device control via subscribed command topics using structured JSON payloads (AWS Blogs, 2022). However, fully integrating MQTT clients on smartphones— enabling them to act as BLE–MQTT gateways with AWS IoT Core support—remains relatively unexplored, despite the availability of mobile SDKs and sample projects (AWS Samples, 2021).

AWS IoT Core is a hosted service that enables devices to communicate with the cloud via the MQTT protocol with good scalability and security. According to the literature, device access is secured through Thing enrollment, certificate authentication, and IoT Policy management, while the IoT rules engine forwards incoming messages to services such as Amazon S3 based on topic and content. Despite the complexity of the configuration process, tools such as AWS Amplify can significantly simplify the development process for IoT architectures where the phone is the intermediary gateway (AWS Samples, 2021).

Mobile GUIs and app settings have been studied in two key reviews. Qasim et al. (2018) look at tools and methods for building simple, user-focused smartphone interfaces. Pereira et al. (2019) examine ways to manage app settings and recommend automatic checks to prevent invalid choices. Together, these studies help us create mobile interfaces that are easy to use and safe to configure.

Technical Foundations

This project uses MQTT to enable smartphone-based data publishing and command subscription with AWS IoT Core. BLE sensor data is sent in JSON format to the sensors/ble topic using QoS level 1, while control commands from the commands/ble topic are parsed and written back to BLE device characteristics. Real-time device status and message activity are visible in the AWS console, forming a complete mobile IoT communication loop.

To ensure the security and stability of communication, the smartphone obtains temporary credentials and AWS authentication through the Amazon Cognito identity pool, and the MQTT client partly uses Eclipse Paho, with a reconnection mechanism and message acknowledgement processing logic to improve system reliability. In addition, the project is configured with an AWS IoT Rules engine that filters upstream sensor data based on subject matter and automatically forwards it to Amazon S3 for persistent storage and subsequent analysis. The architecture offers scalability, serverless features, and low-latency communication from edge devices to the cloud for modern IoT scenarios.