Industry Expert Blogs

IoT devices have to be connected but power consumption is usually a real concern. If you think about wearables, like for example fitness wristbands, the time between charges could make or break the product. Even if Wi-Fi looks attractive to connect an IoT device, the system developers have quickly realize that the power consumption associated with Wi-Fi technology was too high, leading to short active time before recharging. Bluetooth 4.0 (aka Low Energy or BTLE) has generated high interest from the developers of emerging IoT applications.

But Bluetooth has been initially defined for short range usage, typically headset and smartphone, with paired device broadcasting approach. According with Bluetooth SIG, the future launch of Bluetooth 5 at the end of 2016, beginning of 2017, will not only suppress these limitations in term of range and broadcasting capability, but also double the speed and by consequence half the power consumption. Let’s review in details these four improvements and their impact on Bluetooth 5 adoption for battery powered connected devices.

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