BLE Set to Dominate Indoor Positioning Systems

By Franz Dugand, Ceva

Indoor positioning systems – helping me figure out where I am in the mall, where is the specific item I want to buy, where is the latest shipment of iPhones in this warehouse – this is a need still not well met through existing solutions. GPS doesn’t work indoors, RFID tags and QR or barcodes don’t help if you aren’t already close, and Wi-Fi is too expensive and power hungry to serve as a widely deployed location system. Newer standards like UWB have some advantages and some drawbacks, unless coupled with Bluetooth BLE which stands out as the most obvious protocol to serve this space.

The Market Opportunity

Research forecasts over 530 million BLE based positioning devices shipping annually by 2030, thanks to a very respectable 28.5% CAGR though 2030. Where are all these indoor positioning system devices going?

Four big growth areas are anticipated. Indoor navigation in malls, airports and train stations, all sizeable locations where directions to or within a store, to a departure gate or to a platform have not migrated to the smartphone/Internet age. Imagine knowing exactly, down to the display counter, where the sweater you want is in the mall. Or where you can find Korean hot sauce in the supermarket. Or how to find terminal B as quickly as possible. No more walking around in circles, looking for an assistant! Indoor positioning systems can become that assistant.

Asset tracking in a giant logistics warehouse, by a palette or even by package are another great application for indoor positioning systems. Or finding where the nearest crash cart is on this floor of the hospital. Even for us consumers, finding those wireless earbuds you lost somewhere in the living room. Indoor positioning systems are the next natural step in location assistance, a service we take for granted outdoors, now moved indoors.

The same technology is also valuable in supporting digital keys. Accurate indoor positioning systems to find your car in a covered parking lot, sufficiently safe to unlock the door to your car, or your house, hotel room, or office without danger that it will unlock the wrong door.

No wonder analysts see big potential in this technology.

Indoor Positioning Systems with BLE, or BLE+UWB

Which indoor positioning systems technology will dominate depends on the accuracy and performance of that technology, but also whether it can leverage existing infrastructure. Building out new infrastructure is expensive and can significantly slow adoption. BLE doesn’t have this problem. It is already ubiquitous in cell phones and in cars, watches, remotes, earbuds, etc., etc. We expect BLE everywhere and our phones are already interacting with and controlling those devices.

Also Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is the lowest energy wireless protocol that is widely available. A critical product consideration for any device which must operate on tiny batteries or even harvested energy from ambient RF. Such as smart electronic shelf labels in stores or ultra-low power IDs on palettes and packages.

Ceva is already widely known as a Bluetooth technology provider. Over a billion devices in 2022 are built around this technology, in earbuds, tablets, phones, headsets, remotes, watches, gaming controller, smart glasses… Many of these products demand very low energy which is why Ceva BLE is so widely used. If you need added accuracy, we have a UWB solution which works together with our BLE – BLE for getting close, UWB to get to the last few cm.

Ceva Also Supports Channel Sounding

In earlier generations of Bluetooth, indoor positioning systems depended on received signal strength indication (RSSI) and Angle of Arrival (AoA) / Angle of Departure (AoD) measurements to estimate distance from the sender to the receiver. RSSI gives an approximate sense of distance but can be confused by reflection, refraction and attenuation. Moreover, it is exposed to risk of man-in-the-middle attacks as the Bluetooth signal could be intercepted and relayed transparently from a different location/distance. AoD/AoD improves on RSSI but is also subject to similar limitations. In addition, neither method is very secure.

Channel sounding instead uses phase-shift detection across multiple channels, allowing for more accurate time-of-flight estimation, down to 50cm or better within 5m, and more error correction between channels. It also provides for higher security against man-in-the-middle attacks and cloning.

Location finding is then completed through fixed beacons mounted around the mall, store, airport, etc., against which a UE can accurately determine location. Availability of these beacons is expected to grow 2.4X by 2027. Channel sounding between beacon and UEs complete the indoor positioning systems solution.

Availability

Based on extensive Bluetooth experience in the market, CEVA already offers a full Bluetooth 5.4 compliant IP supporting both LE and dual mode. This includes a full software protocol stack and a wide range of profiles: sport and fitness, health and wellness, human interfaces, mesh, all the classic and latest audio interfaces, even low-rate personal area networks.

The channel sounding solution adds the link layer, modem, and RF interface together with a trial profile for positioning and an SDK. We should stress here that the hardware components of this solution are finalized, whereas the software component (protocol definition for the profile and SDK) are still expected to evolve until the standard working group ratifies the new release. Meantime we are already working with partners to tune trial software components, ensuring we will be ready with production platforms to support indoor positioning systems product as soon as possible after ratification.

You can learn more about Ceva’s Bluetooth connectivity options and channel sounding.