If the interface in the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) standard is not yet a part of your application, everything indicates that it will certainly be available soon. Wireless communication technologies have developed very dynamically in recent years, and the number of portable devices that use communication in this standard, such as watches, medical monitors and sensors, or phone accessories, is growing.
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What’s Bluetooth Low Energy?
Bluetooth Low Energy solves two key problems faced by users. It not only reduces the speed of battery depletion, but also eliminates the need to constantly pair devices that have already been connected together. The new generation of Bluetooth technology places less emphasis on maintaining a constant stream of information. Instead, it focuses on sending smaller chunks of data when needed, and then puts the connection to sleep when not in use. As a result, Bluetooth allows device manufacturers to replace proprietary communication technologies between sensors in favor of Bluetooth. If you’d like to present it in your device, it’s best to contact companies like https://leancode.co/ to do the job.
Bluetooth Low Energy Architecture
Besides the fact that BLE is a protocol that enables the design of devices with very low power consumption, it also has the following advantages:
- reliable and resistant to interference transmission, using adaptive frequency change,
- security: pairing, connection and privacy as well as protection against Man-In-The-Middle attacks and AES-128 encryption,
- rapid prototyping,
- relatively low cost of implementations,
- compatibility with a wide range of devices: the standard is supported under the most popular operating systems, including iOS, Android, Windows 8, as well as OSX and Linux.
Enhanced versions of Bluetooth LE
Bluetooth 4.1 introduced three major improvements over version 4.0: no interference with 4G networks, better management of power consumption through pairing, and the fact that devices can work as end network nodes and hubs/controllers at the same time, allowing a variety of peripherals to communicate with each other independently.
In turn, the Bluetooth 4.2 presented in 2014 was designed for the new generation IoT devices. It includes: improved internet connectivity and enhanced security, packet size has been increased by almost 10 times compared to version 4.1, and communication speed has been increased by 2.5 times.
Bluetooth 5.0 further increases the available bandwidth and reduces transmission latency, as well as extending the range and allowing more flexible use of the IP protocol. It is worth paying special attention to the following novelties:
- even a twofold increase in bandwidth in relation to Bluetooth 4.2 (bandwidth increased to 2 Mb / s, possibility of quick firmware update),
- even a fourfold increase in range (theoretically 300 m and more),
- even an 8-fold increase in the possibility of broadcasting messages,
- detection and prevention of interference between devices operating in the 2.4 GHz ISM band and adjacent LTE bands,
- support for work in networks with a mesh topology: a feature of particular importance for IoT applications. In this type of network, all devices can communicate with each other directly, instead of always transmitting data via a central hub.
Now you know the characteristics of Bluetooth Low Energy, so it’s time to implement it in your own solution!