Wireless is highly employed nowadays in various setups. The boom is partly due to the available technologies developed: Wireless LAN, Classic Bluetooth, IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee, and Wireless HART serve different purposes. I mentioned in my last post the possible interfaces in the healthcare products ecosystem. The PAN devices (sensors and actuators) require a cheap, low energy, fast, reliable wireless connection method. Bluetooth low energy wireless technology, the hallmark feature of the v4.0 Bluetooth Core Specification, solves all problems.
This technology originated in 2001with Nokia as BTLite and was initially made public as Wibree in 2006 by an alliance between Nokia, Suunto, Nordic Semiconductors, etc. In June 2007, Nokia and the Bluetooth SIG announced that Wibree would be integrated with Bluetooth. Strategic move I might add. Back in 2006, Nokia’s purpose of developing “yet another wireless standard” (there already was Zigbee and Z-wave) was strictly related to connected watches and shoes, as well as keyboards and mice, as its target market. Making a standard public in its draft form was aimed at bringing other companies on board. Thus, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group has approved a low-power variant of the wireless standard, challenging Zigbee and Z-Wave and targeting heath care applications.
WiBree owes its birth to heart-rate-monitoring watches, an idea originating with Nokia who wanted to connect to its mobile phones with in-shoe sensors to enable tweeting over jogging progress. This idea was the one that brought the standard where it is now, irrespective of how funny and unrealistic it seemed at the time. Nonetheless, Nokia appears to have been lost somewhere down the way, since its original idea Wibree has suffered quite some transformations while under the protective wing of Bluetooth SIG. In 2009 Continua’s Version One Design Guidelines became public including Bluetooth low energy technology. “We are pleased that Continua Health Alliance has selected Bluetooth low energy wireless technology for inclusion in its next Design Guidelines, and are excited about the compelling Bluetooth-enabled devices Continua members will bring to the market,” said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director, Bluetooth Special Interest Group. However, Nokia was neither part of the founding companies of Continua Alliance nor is it currently part of the contributing members. Nokia should have been the winner of the healthcare race showing insight in this domain but came on the market with a technology standard that was not strong enough and with a marketing idea worth billions. Partnering with Bluetooth should have strengthen its position as THE PLAYER, but this move only boosted the technology on its own, while Nokia was gradually removed.
In June 2010, Bluetooth Core Specification v4.0 with the hallmark feature of low energy technology was published. Bluetooth technology now encompasses low energy (Bluetooth v4.0), Classic Bluetooth and high speed (Bluetooth 3.0 + HS). BT LE looks like prince charming, all sugar and spice and everything nice. However, this prince seems a bit too familiar to another fairytale.
The BT LE technology is actually not entirely new. While the low-power option for Bluetooth doesn’t seem to have inherited much from its predecessor, since there is no backward compatibility between the two standards (it’s just possible for them to co-exist), the complete novelty in this technology isn’t exactly striking. There are aspects within the standard that were long established through Classic Bluetooth such as the Bluetooth radio, HCl logic and physical transport layers, and L2CAP packets. The new aspects relate to the efficient discovery and connection setup, the very short packets, the asymmetrical design for small peripheral devices and the client - server architecture.
Bluetooth SIG was able to read the profit into the bleak Nokia idea and transformed it at a time when “yet another wireless standards” seemed useless. Its advantages include cheap, simple solutions such as integrating sensors. Areas like phone accessories, home automation, P2P intelligent transport systems are bound to take off in terms of profit. Billions are predicted in these areas, while the areas of health, wellness, sports & fitness or the assisted living are already making the projected numbers. These barely exploited possibilities are what make BT LE a standard to stay and make an impact on wireless technology. Here's one video on the ramifications of Bluetooth Low Energy in consumer wellness applications:
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