[Thali-talk] Testing BLE discovery and Bluetooth connectivity in Android land

[Yaron Goland]

Note: This is going to the public mailing list

Devices -
HTC One M9 -Android 6 with android security path level 2015-12-01
LG G4 - Android 5.1 w/Android Security Patch Level 2016-01-01
Nexus 6 - Android 6.0.1 w/Android Security Patch Level 2016-02-01

Setup - I turned off wifi direct support

Test #1 - For the first tests I took the native client and I tried to connect one client to one server. I made sure that the other devices were not running the test app and before each test I turned off the apps and restarted them. In all cases but one discovery was reasonably snappy and the first connect and disconnect was instantaneous and clearly viewable on both devices. In all cases the second connect failed. My details notes are recorded in [1].

Test #2 - I tried to connect two devices to one server. I would first establish a connection from one client and then from the other. In all cases the second connection timed out. I looked at the latest BTLibrary code and it seems to support multiple simultaneous Bluetooth connections so I don't understand why these tests failed. They should not have. Results are recorded in [2].

Test #3 - I tried to connect all three devices in a circle. That is, device 1 to 2, 2 to 3 and 3 back to 1. This worked in all cases. [3]

Test #4 - In this test I connected a single client to the other two phones as a server. I even sent actual data. Everything passed. [4]

Test #5 - For Test #5 I picked a random application off the store, in this case Bluetooth Chat by Emparador. This does require pairing the devices. Which I did. But I was then able to send Bluetooth messages (I made sure WiFi was turned off) from each phone to the other two phones and I tested this with all the phones. The only real difference in the Bluetooth stack between a paired connection and an insecure RFCOMM connection is the later lacks encryption. Also, for entertainment value, I killed the Bluetooth Chat app on one of the phones and restarted it. I was instantly able to connect back to the other two phones and they to the phone I had turned off. So at least with pairing the Bluetooth stack can clearly behave itself.
Questions:

Why is the default buffer size 256 bytes? Why not say 10k? Or 100k?

There was a consistent issue with the HTC seeing the Nexus multiple times in its listing. Why?

                Thanks,

                                Yaron


[1] ONE SERVER - ONE CLIENT

Test - Connect client to server, disconnect, try to reconnect

Server - HTC m9
Client - Nexus 6
Comment - It took the HTC a good 10 or 20 seconds to notice the Nexus but the Nexus saw the HTC instantly
Test Result - Failed

Server - HTC m9
Client - LG
Comment - The LG found the HTC quite quickly, the HTC though was only a tiny bit slower than the LG, much better than with the Nexus
Test Result - Failed

Server - Nexus
Client - HTC
Comment - The HTC found the nexus instantly but the Nexus took a tiny bit of time to find the HTC
Test Result - Failed

Server - Nexus
Client - LG
Comment - LG found the nexus instantly, the nexus took a few seconds more to find the LG
Test Result - Failed

Server - LG
Client - HTC
Comment - HTC found G4 instantly. G4 took a few more seconds to find HTC
Test Result - Failed

Server - LG
Client - Nexus
Comment - Nexus found LG instantly. The LG took a good 10 seconds to find the Nexus.
Test Result - Failed

[2] ONE SERVER - TWO CLIENTS

In this test I first connect to the server with client 1 and then with client 2. The goal is to see if they can both connect.

Server - HTC
Client 1 - LG
Client 2 - Nexus
Result - Fail, The LG connected without issue but the Nexus could not connect, it got a time out.

Server - HTC
Client 1 - Nexus
Client 2 - LG
Result - Fail, Same as above but in reverse order

Server - Nexus
Client 1 - HTC
Client 2 - LG
Comment - The Nexus and LG found the other 2 phones instantly, the HTC found the Nexus instantly but took some time to find the LG
Result - Fail on second, as with previous

Server - Nexus
Client 1 - LG
Client 2 - HTC
Comment - Unlike in the previous test, this time everyone found everyone else instantly
Result - Fail on second, as with previous

Server - LG
Client 1 - HTC
Client 2 - Nexus
Comment - This time Nexus was the winner, followed a few seconds later by the LG followed a few seconds later by the HTC
Result - Fail, on second, as with previous

Server - LG
Client 1 - Nexus
Client 2 HTC
Comment - This time the HTC found everyone first, followed by the Nexus with the LG lagging
Result - Fail, on second, as with previous

[3] THREE SERVERS - THREE CLIENTS

Three Servers, Three Clients

In this test I create a round robin between the devices. I connect device 1 to device 2, 2 to 3 and 3 to 1. I'm just testing that they will all connect to each other.

Client 1 - LG
Client 2 - HTC
Client 3 - Nexus
Result - Success

Client 1 - LG
Client 2 - Nexus
Client 3 - HTC
Result - Success

[4] TWO SERVERS - ONE CLIENT

In this test I take one client and have it connect to the other two phones. Strictly for entertainment value I also sent data.

Client - LG
Server 1 - HTC
Server 2 - Nexus
Comment - this time the LG was fastest followed several seconds later by the Nexus and then followed a good 30 seconds later by the HTC
Result - Success

Client - LG
Server 1 - Nexus
Sever 2 - HTC
Result - Success

Client - HTC
Server 1- LG
Server 2 - Nexus
Result - Success

(Skipping the second HTC test)

Client - Nexus
Server 1 - HTC
Server 2 - LG
Result - Success

(Skipping the second Nexus test)

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