Why does the PCB factory say that Bluetooth 5.0 is more suitable for the Internet of Things?

Four years ago, since the Bluetooth SIG officially announced the launch of Bluetooth 5.0, it can be described as a wave of waves. As one of the biggest IoT events of the year, including its astonishing four times the connection distance and twice the transmission speed. Not long after, SIG announced Bluetooth 5.0 and began to fully support the new Mesh technology, so that Bluetooth has changed from the original star network, one-to-one connection, to a many-to-many mesh network.

The successful launch of this initiative has put Bluetooth on the same front as Wi-Fi, Thread, and ZigBee, and formed a direct competitive relationship in the field of IoT.

The circuit board factory compares Wi-Fi technology with Bluetooth to see which one has more future advantages in the Internet of Things?

Before this, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi can be said to have their own advantages: Bluetooth has lower power consumption, small size, low cost, and is suitable for short-distance data transmission between several devices; Wi-Fi is characterized by high bandwidth, long Distance, more number of connected devices (different routers have different upper limits on the number of connected devices), suitable for large-scale, large-scale data transmission and signal coverage.

1. Support higher-speed data transmission

Bluetooth 5.0 has a transfer speed of 2Mbps, which is twice the speed of the previous 4.2 LE (low energy) version. And as early as 3.0, Bluetooth technology has begun to introduce HS high-speed transmission. Through the integration with the 802.11 communication protocol, it allows mobile devices to achieve a transmission speed of 24Mbps through Wi-Fi channels. However, due to the limited size and power consumption of HS technology, it is only suitable for functional modules integrated with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, such as wireless network cards. At this point, in terms of portability and mobility, Bluetooth is slightly better than Wi-Fi; but in terms of transmission rate, regardless of the integrated functional modules, Wi-Fi is even better.

2. Stronger ability to solve signal interference problems

Although Bluetooth 5.0 still runs on the 2.4GHz frequency, there are hidden dangers of signal interference; but in fact, it has been greatly improved. The Bluetooth SIG once said that compared with Wi-Fi and LTE signals, the new version of Bluetooth can achieve a certain level of performance. Avoiding "signal congestion" in a limited space, such as Wi-Fi that also works at 2.4GHz, is no different.

In terms of transmission distance, Bluetooth 5.0 will be even better. In the future home Internet of Things application scenarios, devices (mobile phones, computers, etc.) that users have a large demand for data traffic will use Wi-Fi, while other smart home devices will choose to use Bluetooth. In this regard, the two are equally indistinguishable, and each has its own advantages.

3. The transmission distance is wider

Bluetooth 5.0 has a theoretical effective signal communication range of 300 meters, which is 4 times that of the 4.2 LE version. In terms of transmission distance, Wi-Fi networking technology has unique advantages, but the current development of Bluetooth technology has opened the Internet of Things Mesh network technology, which enables Bluetooth 5.0 devices to act as signal relay stations for each other, so that signals can also be transmitted. transmitted to infinity. Wireless Mesh is different from traditional networking methods. Every node in the network is mobile, and any two points are kept in contact in a dynamic way, eventually forming a network architecture that can be continuously expanded.

4. Support smaller size and lower power consumption

In quite a few IoT devices, such as sensors and wearable devices, one of the biggest limiting factors is the size, because its own battery capacity is very small and it is inconvenient to charge repeatedly. Compared with the previous generation, Bluetooth has lower power consumption since 4.0, mainly for applications that require extremely low power consumption and are powered by button batteries. At present, most wearable devices are practical Bluetooth low energy technology (BLE). The smaller the IoT device, the more favored the application of Bluetooth BLE.

Bluetooth is not only small in size, but also saves 25% or even double the power compared to Wi-Fi devices, which is critical for small IoT devices without external power supplies.

In addition, Bluetooth 5.0 has carried out many low-level optimizations for the Internet of Things, locking in many important specifications for smart home, audio and Internet of Things; it has strengthened the navigation function, and can combine Wi-Fi to achieve accurate indoor positioning less than 1 meter; In terms of data transfer capacity improvement, it has reached 8 times, and can create more complex connection systems like Beacon...

To sum up, it can be seen that the technical specifications of Bluetooth 5.0 mainly focus on the specifications of the Internet of Things and smart homes. Compared with WiFi transmission, the advantages of Bluetooth transmission are power saving, high security, high compatibility, longer effective distance, and low cost, but Currently, the only downside is the slow internet speed.

However, from the technical specifications specified for the Internet of Things, smart home appliances, wearable devices, etc., it is a leader compared to other wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi. In enterprise-level applications, most of the wireless networking solutions used in the market will continue to take the lead in the foreseeable period, and it is more suitable for the development characteristics of the Internet of Things.

At present, with the introduction of the protocol standard of Bluetooth 5.0, the communication capabilities and communication standards of Bluetooth have undergone great changes, especially the Mesh networking function, which will bring great changes to applications such as IoT lighting. Hotspots are areas that are very worthwhile for circuit board engineers to dabble in.

In order to help you establish the concept of Bluetooth technology, familiarize yourself with the application development environment of the Bluetooth protocol stack, and master the development trend of Bluetooth 5.0 technology. In line with the principle of doing one thing at a time, at 8:00 pm on July 13th, I will be a guest in the live broadcast room of electronic enthusiasts to open up everyone's interest in learning Bluetooth, and bring everyone into the world of the Internet of Things through Bluetooth technology.

This live broadcast is mainly for students, enthusiasts and other related personnel who are interested in the application of Bluetooth 5.0 technology, to help everyone quickly establish a knowledge framework of Bluetooth 5.0 and be able to use it proficiently. The course is mainly based on practical explanations, helping engineers to step into the growth path of IoT development.