Bluetooth Low Energy
Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE, colloquially BLE, formerly marketed as Bluetooth Smart
It is independent of classic
Mobile operating systems including iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry, as well as macOS, Linux, Windows 8, Windows 10 and Windows 11, natively support Bluetooth Low Energy.
Compatibility
Bluetooth Low Energy is distinct from the previous (often called "classic")
Bluetooth Low Energy uses the same
Branding
In 2011, the Bluetooth SIG announced the Bluetooth Smart logo so as to clarify compatibility between the new low energy devices and other Bluetooth devices.[6]
- Bluetooth Smart Ready indicates a dual-mode device compatible with both classic and low energy peripherals.[7]
- Bluetooth Smart indicates a low-energy–only device which requires either a Smart Ready or another Smart device in order to function.
With the May 2016 Bluetooth SIG branding information, the Bluetooth SIG began phasing out the Bluetooth Smart and Bluetooth Smart Ready logos and word marks and reverted to using the Bluetooth logo and word mark[8] in a new blue colour.
Target market
The Bluetooth SIG identifies a number of markets for low-energy technology, particularly in the smart home, health, sport, and fitness sectors.[9] Cited advantages include:
- low power requirements, operating for "months or years" on a button cell.
- small size and low cost.
- compatibility with a large installed base of mobile phones, tablets, and computers.
History
In 2001, researchers at
After further development with partners, in particular Logitech and within the European project MIMOSA,[a] and actively promoted and supported by STMicroelectronics since its early stage,[b] the technology was released to the public in October 2006 with the brand name Wibree.[14] After negotiations with Bluetooth SIG members, an agreement was reached in June 2007 to include Wibree in a future Bluetooth specification as a Bluetooth ultra low power technology.[15][16]
The technology was marketed as Bluetooth Smart and integration into version 4.0 of the Core Specification was completed in early 2010.
The Bluetooth SIG officially unveiled Bluetooth 5 on 16 June 2016 during a media event in London. One change on the marketing side is that the point number was dropped, so it is now just called Bluetooth 5 (and not Bluetooth 5.0 or 5.0 LE like for Bluetooth 4.0). This decision was made to "simplify marketing, and communicate user benefits more effectively".[19] On the technical side, Bluetooth 5 will quadruple the range by using increased transmit power or coded physical layer, double the speed by using optional half of the symbol time compared to Bluetooth 4.x, and provide an eight-fold increase in data broadcasting capacity by increasing the advertising data length[clarification needed] of low energy Bluetooth transmissions compared to Bluetooth 4.x, which could be important for IoT applications where nodes are connected throughout a whole house.[20] An 'advertising packet' in Bluetooth parlance is the information that is exchanged between two devices before pairing, i.e. when they are not connected. For example, advertising packets allow a device to display to the user the name of another Bluetooth device before pairing with it.[21] Bluetooth 5 will increase the data length of this advertising packet. The length of this packet in Bluetooth 4.x was 31 bytes (for broadcast topology).
The Bluetooth SIG released Mesh Profile and Mesh Model specifications officially on 18 July 2017.
Applications
Borrowing from the original Bluetooth specification, the Bluetooth SIG defines several
The majority of current low energy application profiles are based on the Generic Attribute Profile (GATT), a general specification for sending and receiving short pieces of data, known as attributes, over a low energy link.
Mesh profiles
Bluetooth mesh profiles use Bluetooth Low Energy to communicate with other Bluetooth Low Energy devices in the network. Each device can pass the information forward to other Bluetooth Low Energy devices creating a "mesh" effect. For example, switching off an entire building of lights from a single smartphone.[25]
- MESH (Mesh Profile) – for base mesh networking.
- MMDL (Mesh models) – for application layer definitions. Term "model" is used in mesh specifications instead of "profile" to avoid ambiguities.
Health care profiles
There are many profiles for Bluetooth Low Energy devices in healthcare applications.
- BLP (Blood Pressure Profile) – for blood pressure measurement.
- HTP (Health Thermometer Profile) – for medical temperature measurement devices.
- GLP (Glucose Profile) – for blood glucosemonitors.
- CGMP (Continuous Glucose Monitor Profile)
Sports and fitness profiles
Profiles for sporting and fitness accessories include:
- BCS (Body Composition Service)
- CSCP (Cycling Speed and Cadence Profile) – for sensors attached to a exercise bike to measure cadenceand wheel speed.
- CPP (Cycling Power Profile)
- HRP (Heart Rate Profile) – for devices which measure heart rate
- LNP (Location and Navigation Profile)
- RSCP (Running Speed and Cadence Profile)
- WSP (Weight Scale Profile)
Internet connectivity
- IPSP (Internet Protocol Support Profile)
Generic sensors
- ESP (Environmental Sensing Profile)
- UDS (User Data Service)
HID connectivity
- HOGP (HID over GATT Profile) allowing Bluetooth LE-enabled Wireless mice, keyboards and other devices offering long-lasting battery life.
Proximity sensing
"Electronic leash" applications are well suited to the long battery life possible for 'always-on' devices.
Relevant application profiles include:
- FMP – the "find me" profile – allows one device to issue an alert on a second misplaced device.[28]
- PXP – the proximity profile – allows a proximity monitor to detect whether a proximity reporter is within a close range. Physical proximity can be estimated using the radio receiver's RSSIvalue, although this does not have absolute calibration of distances. Typically, an alarm may be sounded when the distance between the devices exceeds a set threshold.
Alerts and time profiles
- The phone alert status profile and alert notification profile allow a client device to receive notifications such as incoming call alerts from another device.
- The time profile allows current time and time zone information on a client device to be set from a server device, such as between a wristwatch and a mobile phone's network time.
Battery
- The Battery Service exposes the Battery State and Battery Level of a single battery or set of batteries in a device.
Audio
Announced in January 2020, LE Audio allows the protocol to carry sound and add features such as one set of headphones connecting to multiple audio sources or multiple headphones connecting to one source[29][30] and also adds support for hearing aids.[31] It introduces LC3 as its default codec.[32] Compared with standard Bluetooth audio it offers longer battery life.[32]
Specifications on the implementation of Basic Audio Profile and Coordinated Set Identification was released in 2021,[33][34][35] and the Common Audio Profile and Service in March 2022.[36][37]
Contact tracing and notification
In December 2020, the Bluetooth SIG released a draft specification for a wearable exposure notification service. This service allows exposure notification services on wearable devices to communicate with and be controlled by client devices such as smartphones.[38]
Implementation
Chip
Starting in late 2009, Bluetooth Low Energy
Hardware
Current mobile devices are commonly released with hardware and software support for both classic Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy.
Operating systems
- iOS 5 and later[39]
- Windows Phone 8.1[40]
- )
- Android 4.3 and later.[43] Android 6 or later requires location permission to connect to BLE.
- BlackBerry OS 10[44]
- Linux 3.4 and later through BlueZ 5.0[45]
- Unison OS 5.2[46]
- macOS 10.10
- Zephyr OS
Technical details
Radio interface
Bluetooth Low Energy technology operates in the same spectrum range (the 2.400–2.4835 GHz
Bluetooth Low Energy uses
Specification | Basic/Enhanced Data Rate | Low Energy |
---|---|---|
Nominal max. range | 100 m (330 ft) | <100 m (<330 ft) |
Over the air data rate[clarify] | 1–3 Mbit/s | 125 kbit/s, 500 kbit/s, 1 Mbit/s, 2 Mbit/s |
Application throughput, or 'goodput' | 0.7–2.1 Mbit/s | 0.27–1.37 Mbit/s[48] |
Active slaves | 7 | Not defined; implementation dependent |
Security | 56/128-bit and application layer user defined | 128-bit AES in CCM mode and application layer user defined |
Robustness | Adaptive fast frequency hopping, FEC, fast ACK
|
Adaptive frequency hopping, lazy acknowledgement, 24-bit CRC, 32-bit message integrity check |
Wake latency (from a non-connected state) | Typically 100 ms | 6 ms |
Minimum total time to send data (det. battery life) | 0.625 ms | 3 ms[49] |
Voice capable | Yes | No |
Network topology | Scatternet | Scatternet |
Power consumption | 1 W as the reference | 0.01–0.50 W (depending on use case) |
Peak current consumption | <30 mA | <15 mA |
Primary use cases | Mobile phones, gaming, headsets, stereo audio streaming, smart homes, wearables, automotive, PCs, security, proximity, healthcare, sports & fitness, etc. | Mobile phones, gaming, smart homes, wearables, automotive, PCs, security, proximity, healthcare, sports & fitness, Industrial, etc. |
More technical details may be obtained from official specification as published by the Bluetooth SIG. Note that power consumption is not part of the Bluetooth specification.
Advertising and discovery
BLE devices are detected through a procedure based on broadcasting advertising packets. This is done using 3 separate channels (frequencies), in order to reduce interference. The advertising device sends a packet on at least one of these three channels, with a repetition period called the advertising interval. For reducing the chance of multiple consecutive collisions, a random delay of up to 10 milliseconds is added to each advertising interval. The scanner listens to the channel for a duration called the scan window, which is periodically repeated every scan interval.
The discovery latency is therefore determined by a probabilistic process and depends on the three parameters (viz., the advertising interval, the scan interval and the scan window). The discovery scheme of BLE adopts a periodic-interval based technique, for which upper bounds on the discovery latency can be inferred for most parametrizations. While the discovery latencies of BLE can be approximated by models[50] for purely periodic interval-based protocols, the random delay added to each advertising interval and the three-channel discovery can cause deviations from these predictions, or potentially lead to unbounded latencies for certain parametrizations.[51]
Security
Bluetooth Low Energy has security instances such as the Encrypted Advertising Data (EAD) feature allowing some or all of the application data payload that is transmitted in advertising packets, to be encrypted. A standard mechanism for the sharing of key material between a broadcasting device and the observers that are intended to receive this data is also defined, so that the data may be decrypted when received.[52]
All transmitted Bluetooth LE PDUs include a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) that is recalculated and checked by the receiving device for the possibility of the PDU having been changed in flight.[52]
Software model
All Bluetooth Low Energy devices use the Generic Attribute Profile (GATT). The
- Client
- A device that initiates GATT commands and requests, and accepts responses, for example, a computer or smartphone.
- Server
- A device that receives GATT commands and requests, and returns responses, for example, a temperature sensor.
- Characteristic
- A data value transferred between client and server, for example, the current battery voltage.
- Service
- A collection of related characteristics, which operate together to perform a particular function. For instance, the Health Thermometer service includes characteristics for a temperature measurement value, and a time interval between measurements.
- Descriptor
- A descriptor provides additional information about a characteristic. For instance, a temperature value characteristic may have an indication of its units (e.g. Celsius), and the maximum and minimum values which the sensor can measure. Descriptors are optional – each characteristic can have any number of descriptors.
Some service and characteristic values are used for administrative purposes – for instance, the model name and serial number can be read as standard characteristics within the Generic Access service. Services may also include other services as sub-functions; the main functions of the device are so-called primary services, and the auxiliary functions they refer to are secondary services.
Identifiers
Services, characteristics, and descriptors are collectively referred to as attributes, and identified by
GATT operations
The GATT protocol provides a number of commands for the client to discover information about the server. These include:
- Discover UUIDs for all primary services
- Find a service with a given UUID
- Find secondary services for a given primary service
- Discover all characteristics for a given service
- Find characteristics matching a given UUID
- Read all descriptors for a particular characteristic
Commands are also provided to read (data transfer from server to client) and write (from client to server) the values of characteristics:
- A value may be read either by specifying the characteristic's UUID, or by a handle value (which is returned by the information discovery commands above).
- Write operations always identify the characteristic by handle, but have a choice of whether or not a response from the server is required.
- 'Long read' and 'Long write' operations can be used when the length of the characteristic's data exceeds the MTU of the radio link.
Finally, GATT offers notifications and indications. The client may request a notification for a particular characteristic from the server. The server can then send the value to the client whenever it becomes available. For instance, a temperature sensor server may notify its client every time it takes a measurement. This avoids the need for the client to poll the server, which would require the server's radio circuitry to be constantly operational.
An indication is similar to a notification, except that it requires a response from the client, as confirmation that it has received the message.
Battery impact
Bluetooth Low Energy is designed to enable devices to have very low power consumption. Several chipmakers including
In contrast, a continuous scan for the same beacons in central role can consume 1,000 mAh in a few hours. Android and iOS devices also have very different battery impact depending on type of scans and the number of Bluetooth Low Energy devices in the vicinity.[57] With newer chipsets and advances in software, by 2014 both Android and iOS phones had negligible power consumption in real-life Bluetooth Low Energy use.[58]
2M PHY
Bluetooth 5 has introduced a new transmission mode with a doubled symbol rate. Bluetooth LE has been traditionally transmitting 1 bit per symbol so that theoretically the data rate doubles as well. However, the new mode doubles the bandwidth from about 1 MHz to about 2 MHz which makes for more interferences on the edge regions. The partitioning of the ISM frequency band has not changed being still 40 channels spaced at a distance of 2 MHz.[59] This is an essential difference over Bluetooth 2 EDR which also doubled the data rate but was doing that by employing a π/4-DQPSK or 8-DPSK phase modulation on a 1 MHz channel while Bluetooth 5 continues to use just frequency shift keying.
The traditional transmission of 1 Mbit in the Bluetooth Basic Rate was renamed 1M PHY in Bluetooth 5. The new mode at a doubled symbol speed was introduced as the 2M PHY. In Bluetooth Low Energy every transmission starts on the 1M PHY leaving it to the application to initiate a switch to the 2M PHY. In that case both sender and receiver will switch to the 2M PHY for transmissions. This is designed to facilitate firmware updates where the application can switch back to a traditional 1M PHY in case of errors. In reality the target device should be close to the programming station (at a few meters).
LE Coded
Bluetooth 5 has introduced two new modes with lower data rate. The symbol rate of the new "Coded PHY" is the same as the Base Rate 1M PHY but in mode S=2 there are two symbols transmitted per data bit. In mode S=2 only a simple Pattern Mapping P=1 is used which simply produces the same stuffing bit for each input data bit. In mode S=8 there are eight symbols per data bit with a Pattern Mapping P=4 producing contrasting symbol sequences – a 0 bit is encoded as binary 0011 and a 1 bit is encoded as binary 1100.[60] In mode S=2 using P=1 the range doubles approximately, while in mode S=8 using P=4 it does quadruple.[61]
The "LE Coded" transmissions have not only changed the error correction scheme but it uses a fundamentally new packet format. Each "LE Coded" burst consists of three blocks. The switch block ("extended preamble") is transmitted on the LE 1M PHY but it only consists of 10 times a binary '00111100' pattern. These 80 bits are not FEC encoded as usual but they are sent directly to the radio channel. It is followed by a header block ("FEC Block 1") which is always transmitted in S=8 mode. The header block only contains the destination address ("Access Address" / 32 bit) and an encoding flag ("Coding Indicator" / 2 Bit). The Coding Indicator defines the Pattern Mapping used for the following payload block ("FEC Block 2") where S=2 is possible.[62]
The new packet format of Bluetooth 5 allows transmitting from 2 up to 256 bytes as the payload in a single burst. This is a lot more than the maximum of 31 bytes in Bluetooth 4. Along with reach measurements this should allow for localisation functions. As a whole the quadrupled range – at the same transmission power – is achieved at the expense of a lower data being at an eighth with 125 kBit. The old transmission packet format, as it continues to be used in the 1M PHY and 2M PHY modes, has been named "Uncoded" in Bluetooth 5. The intermediate "LE Coded" S=2 mode allows for a 500 kBit data rate in the payload which is both beneficial for shorter latencies as well lower power consumption as the burst time itself is shorter.
See also
- ANT
- ANT+
- Bluetooth Low Energy denial of service attacks
- DASH7
- Eddystone
- IEEE 802.15.4-2006
- Indoor positioning system (IPS)
- LoRa
- MyriaNed
- Ultra-wideband (UWB)
- UWB Forum
- WiMedia Alliance
- WirelessHD
- Wireless USB
- Zigbee
- Z-Wave
Notes
- ^ MIMOSA stands for Microsystems platform for mobile services and applications,[12] and is the name of one of the projects funded by the European Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development
- ^ STMicroelectronics went on to release a processor to support implementation of the standard[13]
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- ^ Bluetooth Special Interest Group "Bluetooth Low Energy Regulatory Aspects", April 2011
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- .
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- ^ See for example Apple's Core Bluetooth framework
- ^ See sec 2.5.1 of the Bluetooth 4.0 Core Specification
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- ^ Allen Henley (21 November 2017). "Bluetooth 5: More speeds, more range, new RF tests". EDN Network.
- ^ Mark Hughes. "What is Bluetooth 5? Learn about the Bit Paths Behind the New BLE Standard".
- ^ Woolley, Martin (13 February 2017). "Exploring Bluetooth 5 -Going the Distance". Bluetooth Technology Website.
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Further reading
- "Specifications – Bluetooth Technology Website". bluetooth.org. "Bluetooth 4.0 Core Specification" – GATT is described in full in Volume 3, Part G
External links
- Bluetooth radio versions – official website, at Bluetooth.com
- Gomez, Carles; Oller, Joaquim; Paradells, Josep (29 August 2012). "Overview and evaluation of Bluetooth Low Energy: an emerging low-power wireless technology". PMC 3478807.