The Need for Bluetooth Low Energy

So, coming to the very first question, what makes Bluetooth Low Energy so special? We will have to go back in time a little bit to address this. During the year 2001, the researchers at Nokia had already identified a number of scenarios, which were not being addressed by any of the existing Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) communication technologies,

Note

WPAN or a Wireless Personal Area Network is a network centered around a user's personal space. The typical range for a WPAN network is around 10 meters. An example of a WPAN network technology is Bluetooth.

The most common factors that came out as a result of studying these scenarios were:

• Low power usage
• Low cost
• Minimal differences with current Bluetooth technology

Hence, what started in 2001 ended up being Bluetooth Low Energy or Bluetooth Smart in 2010. The technology was given a descriptive name, which also describes its real purpose of existence. Bluetooth Low Energy was designed for devices which had:

• Low power requirements, operating on a coin cell for longer periods of time (months or even years)
• Low cost
• Industry standard wireless protocol, which can be easily adopted

And guess what? They finally succeeded in achieving all the set goals. If you remember the age of early mobile phones, the ones which had classic Bluetooth only, then you might remember that classic Bluetooth was a battery-expensive feature and continuous usage used to drain the battery on the device pretty quickly. Also, there were not many low-cost Bluetooth accessories available as there are now. However, with the advent of Bluetooth Low Energy (which consumes low power), all these things are bygones. We can now buy a Bluetooth tag, which supports and operates on Bluetooth 4.0, similar to the ones shown next for as low as 1-2 euros (Don't worry too much if you do not yet understand what this tag is used for. In the later chapters, we will build an application around the usage of this tag.):

Figure 1: Low Cost Bluetooth Smart Tag

Fitbit, one of the most common and popular fitness trackers, used for recording the body vitals and daily activity, has a battery life of 7-10 days after a full charge (source: https://www.fitbit.com/charge). Please note that this is a device which is working continuously day and night and even records data when you are sleeping:

Figure 2. Fitbits; source: dev.fitbit.com

Lastly, Bluetooth Low Energy is now being incorporated in each and every smartphone being rolled out. Apple which was one of the early adopters of Bluetooth Low Energy was later joined by Samsung, LG, Motorola, and every other major mobile device manufacturer out there. The popularity and adoption rate of the technology has already seen exponential growth and with the announcement of Bluetooth 5, which promises double the speed and four times the range, we will continue to see an even larger wave of Bluetooth Low Energy and IoT devices hitting the market.