The Bluetooth 4.0 standard introduced BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy), a smart and cost-effective variation of Bluetooth wireless technology. BLE is most frequently employed in gadgets that demand little power (battery- and rechargeable-powered) or that communicate small amounts of data frequently but intermittently. The majority of sensors in a smart home fit this description. As a result, the use of this technology in security alarms and smart homes is currently accelerating.
With Bluetooth Low Energy, data can be transmitted over a channel with a little bandwidth. The fundamental benefit of this standard is defeated when big volumes of data (such video and audio) are transmitted over BLE.
Characteristics of BLE technology
Very little BLE power is used
All Bluetooth Low Energy devices must keep their power usage to a minimum. The gadget should be in sleep mode the most of the time to save battery. The device wakes up and sends a brief message to the gateway, computer, or smartphone when an event occurs. Less than 15 mA are used at its peak, and an average of roughly 1 A is used. The active power consumption of Bluetooth LE is ten times less than that of classic Bluetooth. A single disk battery can deliver dependable operation for 5 to 10 years in many devices.
Compatibility and affordability
The compatibility of many BLE devices with conventional Bluetooth technology is supported. Additionally, these gadgets are inexpensive in comparison to Wi-Fi.
Security and dependability
The Adaptive Frequency Hopping (AFH) technique used by conventional Bluetooth is also used by Bluetooth Low Energy. This enables dependable transmission in “noisy” ether situations, which are frequent in residential, commercial, and healthcare settings. The number of channels is decreased to 40 with a 2 MHz channel width to reduce expenses and energy usage when using AFH (classic Bluetooth uses 79 channels with a width of 1 MHz).
Wireless standards coexistence
In the unlicensed ISM band, the 2.4 GHz frequency is utilized by a number of standards, including IEEE 802.15.4 / ZigBee, Bluetooth, wireless LANs, and others. Due to the necessity of mistake correction and retransmissions caused by the coexistence of so many technologies in the same radio space, interference might impair wireless performance. BLE reduces interference from other radio protocols since it employs AFH.
Range of BLE communication
BLE uses a slightly modified version of the Bluetooth standard’s modulation technique. With a radio chipset transmitter power of 10 dBm and this variation in modulation, a communication range of up to 300 meters is possible (the maximum allowed).
Easy integration and use
A BLE pico network is often built by coupling a master device with a number of well-known ones. A gadget can only have one of these two states at once: master or slave. The frequency of slave communication is determined by the master, and slaves can only transmit data when the master requests it. Additionally, there is an alert feature that allows a known device to signal the host that it has some information to share.
It should be noted that Bluetooth Mesh technology lacks a host.
The BLE standard’s technical specifications
Take a look at the key elements of the BLE standard:
- Operating inside the 2,400 to 2,4835 GHz band.
- The frequency band is split into 40 channels, each with a 2 MHz bandwidth.
- Starting with Bluetooth version 5, the radio channel can transmit data at a maximum speed of 2 Mbit/s.
- 10 to 30 meters is the typical communication range.
- A BLE transceiver typically uses no more than 15 mA of power when actively transmitting data.
- The AES-CCM technique with a key length of 128 bits is utilized for encryption-related operations.
- The BLE portion of Bluetooth is backwards compatible.
Classic Bluetooth and BLE comparison
It’s critical to keep in mind that Bluetooth Low Energy and traditional Bluetooth function very differently. These standards are incompatible with one another at the same time.