Bluetooth (BT) and its low-power Bluetooth (BLE) enhanced version have become key technologies in the field of communication. Through these technologies, Internet of Things (IoT) devices are able to wirelessly connect and transmit data, including text, audio, and streaming videos.
However, the design, implementation, and certification of a complete BT node require extensive professional knowledge, including baseband analog and digital functions, firmware driven embedded processing, RF design of receiver low-noise front-end amplifiers, and transmitter power amplifiers.
To achieve these functions, effective power management is also necessary as a backing. In addition, each BT node must meet a series of comprehensive performance related target requirements and comply with regulatory requirements related to radio frequency interference (RFI) and electromagnetic interference (EMI). These regulations may complicate the design and slow down device deployment speed.
This article will briefly introduce BLE and its applicability in the field of low-power IoT devices. Then introduce Ezuro's ready to use BLE modules and explain how these modules can help accelerate the development of IoT nodes that support BLE.
From Bluetooth to BLE
Bluetooth is a global open standard for wireless data and voice transmission, used to achieve low-cost, short-range wireless connections between various electronic devices. Bluetooth is suitable for operating in the 2.4 GHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) frequency band, and its applications include limited distance transmission of audio and text images, video streaming, smartphone and headphone pairing, and low-power IoT connectivity.
The Bluetooth 1.0 specification requires a transmission distance of 10 meters (applicable to Class 2 devices), simple point-to-point networking, and a data transmission rate of 732.2 kilobits per second (kb/s); The first batch of products was launched in 2000. In the improved provisions of version 2.0 (2004) and version 3.0 (2009) of this standard, the data transmission rate was increased to 3 megabits per second and 24 megabits per second (Mb/s), respectively.
However, for many target applications, the power consumption requirements of the original BT link are too high. In 2010, version 4.0 (BLE) was adopted, and the previous version was informally renamed Bluetooth Classic (Figure 1). Based on an optimized low bandwidth protocol stack specifically designed for IoT devices, BLE adopts an ultra-low power idle mode, reducing power consumption by about 90%. This idle mode allows IoT sensors, location beacons, smart home nodes, medical devices, and fitness trackers to operate on very small button batteries for several years.