Bluetooth 5.0
Bluetooth and the advances to the technology just keep getting better each year. Late this year 2016 early 2017, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) will formalize 5.0. This revised specification will provide the ability of quadrupling of range for Bluetooth low energy devices compared to the Bluetooth 4.0 standard and will double the speed of data throughout from 1 to 2Mbits/second.
The whole value of BTLE (Bluetooth Low Energy), by the SIG is to retain the low power consumption. Having high data rates means that OTA (Over the Air) firmware updates are much faster and also their may be some cross over into the WLAN space.
The original IEEE 802.11 DSSS standard before 1999, was in effect 2MBits/second. In 1999, 802.11b, the extension of 802.11 was when we know as Wi-Fi, became known, i.e. at 10Mbits/second. This launched the WLAN revolution. Was fortunate to be on the ground floor of this working for a company that co-founded the Wi-Fi Alliance.
With BTLE 5.0 developers will have flexibility to take advantage of the 2Mbits/second rate and accept a reduced range. Another option for example is intelligent lighting where data rate is not important; you can simply use a data rate of 250 kbits/second with increased range of 50 meters.
Data rates and ranges can switch back and forth per the SIG 5.0 standard. You could use the high data rate for a OTA firmware upgrade, then switch back to very low data rates for increased distances.
I like Nordic Semiconductor and have used their hardware in the past on medical device projects. www.nordisemi.com Nordic had the first Bluetooth low energy part, was the first company with a SoC integrating a 32-bit ARM Cortex processor, the first with a multi-protocol device, and the first to offer over-the-air firmware upgrades.
www.bluetooth.com
See latest ULP Q4 2016 Report from Nordic – 15MB file
