Bluetooth Low Energy will power next generation IOT projects

IOT market has been fragmented all over the tech space. Being innovative standalone business-driven innovations, it still faces lot of challenges towards interoperability and how it can help and get connected with legacy systems. With the invent of Bluetooth Low Energy which already find its place in IOT world. In compare to classic Bluetooth, it offers considerably reduced power consumption with a similar communication range that is 330 ft. BLE technology offers a variety of possible application from smart homes, wearables, smart healthcare specially designed for senior citizens, connected cars, to large-scale enterprise sensor networks to industrial IOT.

The main USP of this tech is its simplicity, compatibility with numerous devices and its low cost in both development and support. So we can see early adoption from big brands and industries and launch time can be dramatically reduced.

There are three types of connection possible with this technology which might be interesting for those who want to develop their next IOT project.  

It is widely used in health and fitness domain where low powered devices like fitness trackers, smart watches are used to track daily activities and eventually send this data to your smart mobile devices. Various medical devices can be connected via BLE software taking good care of patients at all time.  

It can be applied to way-finding beacons helps Indoor Navigation lot easier. It can also be applied to point-of-interest beacons means In-store notifications for special offers.

There huge amount of potential to enhance shopping experience by providing various notifications like loyalty points, custom offers for each client in accordance to section which he is interested in. It can give you more information about a specific landmark.

Proposed usages can be for home, office, building automation and smart industry can be more promising than any other areas. The most promising Bluetooth 5 which gives 4x range, 2x speed and 8x broadcasting message capacity is going to help in making a sound and reliable solution of entire buildings, homes and offices.

A mesh of bluetooth devices can be installed in an entire building to serve thousands of devices which can communicate internally in a secured environment with one another to have a centralized control of a building’s essential systems, including heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), lighting, and security. Eventually it will give superior experience, increase life span of building, saves lot of costs spent on maintenance.

Manufacturing companies can accurately monitor the health, condition and maintenance requirements of production equipment to reduce unplanned downtime.

Security is an area a concern which is to be handled with care:

AES-CCM cryptography works to protect the data transferred over BLE network and it will provide an extra level of security. Identity tracking can be stopped with regular changes of device addresses. Correct pairing method must be implemented but secure pairing methods have some constraints. Every project implementation must be evaluated separately for possible threats and a combination of security and functionality to be formulated.

See usages of BLE in following video: https://vimeo.com/225874947

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