Bluetooth Low Energy Wireless Technology Introduced
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) today announced the adoption of Bluetooth low energy wireless technology, which is the hallmark feature of the Bluetooth Core Specification Version 4.0.
Bluetooth wireless technology is the global short-range wireless standard for personal connectivity of a broad range of electronic devices. Bluetooth low energy is a new low energy enhancement to the Bluetooth wireless technology Core Specification that paves the way to a vast new market for watches, remote controls, and healthcare and sports sensors.
As an enhancement to the specification, Bluetooth low energy technology opens entirely new markets for devices requiring low cost and low power wireless connectivity.
"With todays announcement the race is on for product designers to be the first to market," said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director, Bluetooth SIG. "Bluetooth low energy modules for all sorts of new products may now be qualified this is an important step towards our goal of enabling new markets with Bluetooth wireless technology. For example, the Continua Health Alliance has already selected Bluetooth low energy as a transport for the next version of its guidelines."
Bluetooth low energy wireless technology features:
- Ultra-low peak, average and idle mode power consumption
- Ability to run for years on standard coin-cell batteries
- Low cost
- Multi-vendor interoperability
- Enhanced range
This enhancement to the Bluetooth Core Specification allows two types of implementation, dual-mode and single-mode. In a dual-mode implementation, Bluetooth low energy functionality is integrated into an existing classic Bluetooth controller. The resulting architecture shares much of classic Bluetooth technologys existing radio and functionality resulting in a minimal cost increase compared to classic Bluetooth technology. Additionally, manufacturers can use current classic Bluetooth (Bluetooth V2.1 + EDR or Bluetooth V3.0 + HS) chips with the new low energy stack, enhancing the development of classic Bluetooth devices with new capabilities.
Single-mode chips, which will enable highly integrated and compact devices, will feature a lightweight Link Layer providing ultra-low power idle mode operation, simple device discovery, and reliable point-to-multipoint data transfer with advanced power-save and secure encrypted connections at the lowest possible cost. The Link Layer in these controllers will enable Internet connected sensors to schedule Bluetooth low energy traffic between Bluetooth transmissions.
Technical Details
Bluetooth low energy supports very short data packets (8 octet minimum up to 27 octets maximum) that are transferred at 1 Mbps. All connections use advanced sniff-subrating to achieve ultra low duty cycles.
- Frequency Hopping Bluetooth low energy uses the adaptive frequency hopping common to all versions of Bluetooth technology to minimize interference from other technologies in the 2.4 GHz ISM Band. Efficient multi-path benefits increase the link budgets and range.
- Host Control Bluetooth low energy places a significant amount of intelligence in the controller, which allows the host to sleep for longer periods of time and be woken up by the controller only when the host needs to perform some action. This allows for the greatest current savings since the host is assumed to consume more power than the controller.
- Latency Bluetooth low energy can support connection setup and data transfer as low as 3ms, allowing an application to form a connection and then transfer authenticated data in few milliseconds for a short communication burst before quickly tearing down the connection.
- Range Increased modulation index provides a possible range for Bluetooth low energy of over 100 meters.
- Robustness Bluetooth low energy uses a strong 24 bit CRC on all packets ensuring the maximum robustness against interference.
- Strong Security Full AES-128 encryption using CCM to provide strong encryption and authentication of data packets.
- Topology Bluetooth low energy uses a 32 bit access address on every packet for each slave, allowing billions of devices to be connected. The technology is optimized for one-to-one connections while allowing one-to-many connections using a star topology. With the use of quick connections and disconnections, data can move in a mesh-like topology without the complexities of maintaining a mesh network.
As an enhancement to the specification, Bluetooth low energy technology opens entirely new markets for devices requiring low cost and low power wireless connectivity.
"With todays announcement the race is on for product designers to be the first to market," said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director, Bluetooth SIG. "Bluetooth low energy modules for all sorts of new products may now be qualified this is an important step towards our goal of enabling new markets with Bluetooth wireless technology. For example, the Continua Health Alliance has already selected Bluetooth low energy as a transport for the next version of its guidelines."
Bluetooth low energy wireless technology features:
- Ultra-low peak, average and idle mode power consumption
- Ability to run for years on standard coin-cell batteries
- Low cost
- Multi-vendor interoperability
- Enhanced range
This enhancement to the Bluetooth Core Specification allows two types of implementation, dual-mode and single-mode. In a dual-mode implementation, Bluetooth low energy functionality is integrated into an existing classic Bluetooth controller. The resulting architecture shares much of classic Bluetooth technologys existing radio and functionality resulting in a minimal cost increase compared to classic Bluetooth technology. Additionally, manufacturers can use current classic Bluetooth (Bluetooth V2.1 + EDR or Bluetooth V3.0 + HS) chips with the new low energy stack, enhancing the development of classic Bluetooth devices with new capabilities.
Single-mode chips, which will enable highly integrated and compact devices, will feature a lightweight Link Layer providing ultra-low power idle mode operation, simple device discovery, and reliable point-to-multipoint data transfer with advanced power-save and secure encrypted connections at the lowest possible cost. The Link Layer in these controllers will enable Internet connected sensors to schedule Bluetooth low energy traffic between Bluetooth transmissions.
Technical Details
Bluetooth low energy supports very short data packets (8 octet minimum up to 27 octets maximum) that are transferred at 1 Mbps. All connections use advanced sniff-subrating to achieve ultra low duty cycles.
- Frequency Hopping Bluetooth low energy uses the adaptive frequency hopping common to all versions of Bluetooth technology to minimize interference from other technologies in the 2.4 GHz ISM Band. Efficient multi-path benefits increase the link budgets and range.
- Host Control Bluetooth low energy places a significant amount of intelligence in the controller, which allows the host to sleep for longer periods of time and be woken up by the controller only when the host needs to perform some action. This allows for the greatest current savings since the host is assumed to consume more power than the controller.
- Latency Bluetooth low energy can support connection setup and data transfer as low as 3ms, allowing an application to form a connection and then transfer authenticated data in few milliseconds for a short communication burst before quickly tearing down the connection.
- Range Increased modulation index provides a possible range for Bluetooth low energy of over 100 meters.
- Robustness Bluetooth low energy uses a strong 24 bit CRC on all packets ensuring the maximum robustness against interference.
- Strong Security Full AES-128 encryption using CCM to provide strong encryption and authentication of data packets.
- Topology Bluetooth low energy uses a 32 bit access address on every packet for each slave, allowing billions of devices to be connected. The technology is optimized for one-to-one connections while allowing one-to-many connections using a star topology. With the use of quick connections and disconnections, data can move in a mesh-like topology without the complexities of maintaining a mesh network.
