Bluetooth Low Energy

Bluetooth Low Energy, Bluetooth LE, Bluetooth Smart ( short BLE, announced in June 2007 as a Bluetooth ultra low power, launched by Nokia in 2001, formerly Wibree ) is a radio technology, which can be networked equipment in an environment of about 10 meters (see also computer network ). Compared to the "classic " Bluetooth BLE to have significantly lower power consumption and lower cost with a similar communications.

Since December 2009, this extension adds the industry standard Bluetooth.

Logos

Devices with the Bluetooth Smart logo use the BLE technology from the Bluetooth standard 4.0 and can only connect to other Bluetooth Smart and Bluetooth Smart Ready devices.

Devices with a Bluetooth Smart Ready Logo can connect to the "classic" Bluetooth devices with Bluetooth Smart and Bluetooth Smart Ready devices. This is made possible by two different radio units.

Particularity

Bluetooth Smart and Bluetooth Smart Ready are optional components of Bluetooth 4.0. One consequence of this is that Bluetooth 4.0 devices to communicate with Bluetooth Smart devices not necessarily.

More details

The new protocol architecture Bluetooth Low Energy was launched in April 2009 in Tokyo. With Bluetooth Low Energy, a new, more energy -efficient operation should be possible.

As Bluetooth 2.1 Bluetooth Low Energy transmits in the 2.4 GHz range, is intended to use less energy and be much cheaper in the integration. This new protocol stack is compatible with Bluetooth version 2.1, but is to independently configured. Bluetooth Low Energy will be available as single - chip solution for small appliances and must be used in combination with previous Bluetooth devices. Requirement is at least one update of the software in previous devices.

With Bluetooth Low Energy wireless coverage will be limited to about 10 meters. Unlike Bluetooth 2.1 with a transmission rate of 2.1 Mbit / s maximum of 1 Mbit / s are transmitted in Bluetooth Low Energy.

Bluetooth Low Energy was first presented in October 2006 based on the Wibree proposal. Wibree is a joint development by Nokia, Epson, Broadcom, CSR and Nordic. In July 2007, the Wibree Forum was adopted by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group and renamed the default to Bluetooth Low Energy. The name " Wibree " consisted of "Wi " as an abbreviation for Wireless and " Bree " for a place in the fantasy saga Lord of the Rings, in which an important hub for ways together. The term ultra low power originally used has been dropped because of the linguistic association Power = strength and with regard to the political requirement for devices with lower energy consumption.

Devices

The operating system Android supports Bluetooth Low Energy v4.3. Apple's iOS operating system supports BLE since issue 5 with the Core Bluetooth Framework, which was published in October 2011. BLE is already available for the Nokia Lumia 520, 620, 625 and 720 with the Lumia Amber software. With the software upgrade to Nokia Lumia Black Bluetooth LE feature on all Nokia Lumia smartphones is enabled with Windows Phone 8. (Source: Nokia website)