Chapter 1. BLE and the Internet of Things

This book is a practical guide to the world of the Internet of Things (IoT), where you will not only learn the theoretical concepts of the Internet of Things but also will get a number of practical examples. The purpose of this book is to bridge the gap between the knowledge base and its interpretation. Much literature is available for the understanding of this domain but it is difficult to find something that follows a hands-on approach to the technology. In this chapter, readers will get an introduction of Internet of Things with a special focus on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). There is no problem justifying the fact that the most important technology for the Internet of Things is Bluetooth Low Energy as it is widely available throughout the world and almost every cell phone user keeps this technology in his pocket. The chapter will then go beyond Bluetooth Low Energy and will discuss many other technologies available for the Internet of Things.

In this chapter we'll explore the following topics:

• Introduction to Internet of Things
• Current statistics about IoT and how we are living in a world which is going towards M2M communication
• Technologies in IoT (Bluetooth Low Energy, Bluetooth beacons, Bluetooth Mesh and Wireless Gateways and so on)
• Typical examples of IoT devices (catering wearables, sports gadgets and autonomous vehicles and so on)
• Bluetooth introduction and versioning
• Restructuring of Bluetooth architecture in version 4.0 (BLE) explaining its protocol stack
• Technical terminologies used in BLE and BLE beacons
• Understanding of BLE security mechanism with special focus on Bluetooth pairing, bonding and the key exchange to cover the encryption, privacy, and user data integrity