Since its introduction in 1998, Bluetooth wireless technology has carved a niche for itself as one of the most important technologies for connecting phones and other portable devices. The next phase in the evolution of this technology is Bluetooth 5.0, or BLE5, the latest version of the platform, and a Low Energy (LE) variant that offers significant advantages over its predecessor, BLE4.
Based on updated forecasts from ABI Research and insights from several other research firms, the Bluetooth® Market Update 2020 examines the growth and health of Bluetooth SIG members, trends and forecasts for each of the key areas of Bluetooth wireless solutions, and forecasts, trends and opportunities in Bluetooth vertical markets.
According to this year’s report, annual shipments of Bluetooth-enabled devices will exceed six billion by 2024, with low-energy technology contributing a large portion of this activity. In fact, Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) technology is setting the new market standard, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 26%.
By 2024, 35% of annual Bluetooth shipments will be single-mode LE devices, and with the recent launch of LE Audio, forecasts show that single-mode Bluetooth LE device shipments will triple over the next five years.
Within the Bluetooth LE market, BLE5 is making its mark on Bluetooth Beacon and the Internet of Things (IoT), creating new opportunities in areas such as smart buildings, smart industry, smart homes, and smart cities using mesh connections.
Some Bluetooth basics Before we get into how BLE5 compares to previous models, let’s give you a basic understanding of the technology and how it has evolved to its current level.
Bluetooth is both a high-speed, low-power wireless technology and a specification (IEEE 802.15.1) for using low-power radio communications that can connect phones, computers, and other network devices over short distances without cables.
The links are established via inexpensive transceivers built into Bluetooth-compatible devices. The technology typically operates in the 2.45 GHz frequency band and can support up to 721 kbps of data transmission, along with three voice channels. This frequency band has been reserved by international agreement for use by industrial, scientific, and medical devices.
Standard Bluetooth links can connect up to eight devices simultaneously, with each device having a unique 48-bit address based on the IEEE 802 standard. Connections can be point-to-point or point-to-multipoint.
A Bluetooth network consists of a Personal Area Network or piconet, which contains a minimum of two and a maximum of eight Bluetooth peer devices – usually in the form of a single “master” and up to seven “slaves”.
The master initiates communication with other devices and controls the communication link and data traffic between itself and the slave devices associated with it. A slave device may only begin its transmissions in a time slot immediately following the one in which it was addressed by the master, or in a time slot explicitly reserved for its use.
How Bluetooth has evolved In 1998, technology companies Ericsson, IBM, Nokia, and Toshiba formed the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), which published the first version of the platform in 1999. This first version was capable of achieving a data transfer rate of 1 Mbps. Version 2.0+EDR had a data transfer rate of 3 Mbps, while version 3.0+HS increased the data transfer rate to 24 Mbps.
That brings us to versions 4 and 5.
How BLE5 compares to BLE4 Versions 1 to 3 of the platform operated over Bluetooth radios, which consume a large amount of energy to operate. Bluetooth Low Energy technology, or BLE, was originally created to reduce the power consumption of Bluetooth peripherals. It was introduced with Bluetooth 4.0 and continued to be improved through the BLE4 series, the last version of which was 4.2.
In terms of design and performance, BLE5 has the upper hand over BLE4 in a number of different respects.
Speed BLE5 achieves a data transfer rate of 48MBps. This is double that of BLE4. Bluetooth 5.0 has a bandwidth of 5Mbps, which is more than double that of Bluetooth 4.2, whose maximum bandwidth is 2.1Mbps. This effectively increases the data rate of BLE5 to 2 Mbps, allowing it to reach a net data rate of about 1.4 Mbps, if you ignore overhead costs such as addressing. This is not fast enough to stream video, but it does allow for audio streaming.
Range The range of BLE5 is up to four times greater than that of Bluetooth 4.2. A BLE4 solution can reach a maximum range of about 50 meters, so with Bluetooth 5.0 it is possible to reach up to 200 meters - although some researchers claim that BLE5 can connect up to 300 meters or 985 feet. The data applies to outdoor connectivity.
Indoors, Bluetooth 5 actively works within a radius of 40 meters. Compare this to BLE4's indoor range of 10m, and it's clear that BLE5 has an advantage when it comes to using wireless headphones some distance from your phone, for example, or connecting devices throughout your house, as opposed to in a single room.
- Transmission capacity Bluetooth 5 supports data packets that are eight times larger than the previous version, with a message capacity of around 255 bytes (BLE4 has a message capacity of around 31 bytes). This gives BLE5 significantly more space for its actual data payload, and with more data bits in each packet, the net data throughput also increases.
Bluetooth 5 Beacons have become increasingly popular, largely due to the increased range, speed, and message capacity of BLE5.
Compatibility In terms of compatibility, BLE4 works best with devices that are compatible with version 4 of the series, but does not work with devices that use Bluetooth 5. BLE5 is backward compatible with all versions of Bluetooth up to version 4.2 - but with the limitation that not all Bluetooth 5 features may be available on these devices.
Power Consumption Both BLE5 and BLE4 are part of the Bluetooth Low Energy ecosystem, but BLE5 has been designed to consume less power than its predecessor. As a result, Bluetooth 5 devices can operate for longer periods without putting too much strain on their batteries.
Historically, this has been a particular problem with smartwatches and devices with smaller form factors, such as IoT sensors. With the revised power consumption scheme in Bluetooth 5, most such devices will increase their battery life
Resilience BLE5 was developed taking into account that important processes involving Bluetooth often occur in a congested environment, which negatively affects its performance. Compared to Bluetooth 4.2, BLE5 operates much more reliably in congested environments.
Security In April 2017, security researchers discovered several exploits in Bluetooth software (collectively called “BlueBorne”) affecting various platforms, including Microsoft Windows, Linux, Apple iOS, and Google’s Android. Some of these exploits could allow an attacker to connect to devices or systems without authentication, effectively hijacking an entire device.
BLE5 has addressed a large portion of this vulnerability, with bit-level security and authentication checks using a 128-bit key.
What this means for practical applications of BLE5 With its low power consumption, inexpensive hardware, and small form factors, BLE5 opens up scope for a wide range of applications.
In previous versions, Bluetooth Low Energy technology was primarily used for storage, beacons, and other low-power devices, but it had some serious limitations. For example, wireless headphones could not exchange messages under BLE4.
With Bluetooth 5.0, all audio devices can share data via Bluetooth Classic, and Bluetooth Low Energy is now more useful for wearables, smart IoT devices, fitness tracking equipment, and battery-powered accessories like wireless keyboards.
BLE5 also includes a feature that allows you to play audio on two connected devices (headphones, speakers, TVs, etc.) simultaneously. Each device is connected to a common “command center” and can independently choose its priority for information transmission – higher transfer speed or increased distance over which the devices can interact.
Bluetooth 5 also enables serial connections between devices. So for IoT components, each device can connect to a network