Bluetooth 5.0 – What you need to know ?

Bluetooth 5.0 – New standard for bluetooth , will be twice speed as BLE 4.2 and 4 times longer Range

As per the new spec BT 5.0 will:

• quadruple the range
• double the speed
• increase data broadcasting capacity by 800% (31 bytes to 255 bytes)

What is Bluetooth and where it can be used

Bluetooth is a global wireless communication standard that connects devices together over a certain distance.A Bluetooth device uses radio waves instead of wires or cables to connect to a phone or computer. A Bluetooth product, like a headset or watch, contains a tiny computer chip with a Bluetooth radio and software that makes it easy to connect. When two Bluetooth devices want to talk to each other, they need to pair. Communication between Bluetooth devices happens over short-range, ad hoc networks known as piconets. A piconet is a network of devices connected using Bluetooth technology. The network ranges from two to eight connected devices. When a network is established, one device takes the role of the master while all the other devices act as slaves. Piconets are established dynamically and automatically as Bluetooth devices enter and leave radio proximity.

basically BT started its use in these three areas

1. Headset and Phone
2. Speaker and PC
3. Car Speaker and Phone

IoT made the scope of BT into many items like

1. DoorLocks
2. Water bottles
3. TVs
4. Shoes (all sports wears)
5. Toothbrush

The name Bluetooth comes from the 10^thcentury Danish King Harald Blåtand or Harold Bluetooth in English. King Blåtand helped unite warring factions in parts of what are now Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Similarly, Bluetooth technology was created as an open standard to allow connectivity and collaboration between disparate products and industries

Types of Bluetooth (evolution)

1. Bluetooth BR/EDR( also BT 2.0) – Basic model of bluetooth,. Use basic rate and enhanced data rate
2. BLE Bluetooth Low energy (BT 4.0 or BT4.2) _ focussed approach on energy consumption
3. Bluetooth 5.0 – Recent edition, specifications available, will be released soon End of 2016.

Why to use Bluetooth?

It is available already everywhere – All most all smart/feature phones are having Bluetooth capability
Low power than Wifi chipset consumption
Low cost
Easy to use with so many open communities built around BT
Youtubelink

Beacon Infographic: More details in this blog

BT 5.0 has many advantages over BLE. BLE follows the below method for advertising the ID through Beacons
UUID+major+minor+TXPower
(16 bytes+2+2+2)
UUID: This is a 16 byte string used to differentiate a large group of related beacons. For example, if Coca-Cola maintained a network of beacons in a chain of grocery stores, all Nike Shoe beacons would share the same UUID. This allows Nikes’s dedicated smartphone app to know which beacon advertisements come from Nike-owned beacons.
Major: This is a 2 byte string used to distinguish a smaller subset of beacons within the larger group. For example, if Nike had four beacons in a particular grocery store, all four would have the same Major. This allows NIke to know exactly which store its customer is in.
Minor: This is a 2 byte string meant to identify individual beacons. Keeping with the Nike example, a beacon at the front of the store would have its own unique Minor. This allows Nike’s dedicated app to know exactly where the customer is in the store.
Tx Power: This is used to determine proximity (distance) from the beacon. How does this work? TX power is defined as the strength of the signal exactly 1 meter from the device. This has to be calibrated and hardcoded in advance. Devices can then use this as a baseline to give a rough distance estimate.

Now BT 5.0 gives 255 bytes space, so lot many custom information can be stored. Thus identification of exact location is getting easier.
In the same way of stores example , we can customize for home segment also , noting different locations – Kitchen, entrance, exit and Gym