Will the opening of the new generation of Bluetooth 5 standard become the best choice for the Internet of Things?

Abstract: In the past, the most common applications of Bluetooth in life were keyboards, mice, speakers and Bluetooth headsets. These transmissions did not require high bandwidth. The adoption of Bluetooth technology not only saves wire costs, but also increases product flexibility. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) officially announced the launch of a new generation of standard Bluetooth 5 (Bluetooth 5), the main advantages of which are longer distances, higher transmission speeds and larger broadcast data capacity.

In the past, the most common applications of Bluetooth in life were keyboards, mice, speakers and Bluetooth headsets. These transmissions did not require high bandwidth. The adoption of Bluetooth technology not only saves wire costs, but also increases product flexibility. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) officially announced the launch of a new generation of standard Bluetooth 5 (Bluetooth 5), the main advantages of which are longer distances, higher transmission speeds and larger broadcast data capacity. The Bluetooth mesh network Mesh developed by the Bluetooth SIG will be released recently, and Bluetooth 5.0 devices will be able to achieve a many-to-many connection mode. In addition, a number of technologies such as indoor positioning are also under study, and the status of Bluetooth 5.0 in IoT applications will soon be improved.

With the continuous development of the Internet of Things, the number of connected devices is increasing, and the role of wireless technology in the Internet of Things is also increasing. At present, there are three main wireless general technical standards commonly used in the international Internet of Things: Wi-Fi, Zigbee and Bluetooth. The industry has been debating which solution is the most suitable.

From a technical point of view, Wi-Fi has fast speed and wide range, but consumes a lot of power; Zigbee, low power consumption, slow speed, incompatibility, and low device penetration rate; Bluetooth, low power consumption, low radiation, its transmission distance The disadvantages of shortness and small range have been greatly improved recently with the release of Bluetooth 5.0.
　　
From the perspective of product magnitude, according to incomplete statistics, various types of devices that use Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as common standards in the civilian field occupy a major share of the global market. Among them, the shipments of Wi-Fi devices in 2016 are about approx. There are 2 billion units, and in 2016 shipments of Bluetooth-enabled devices reached more than 3 billion units. As a common standard in the industry, the global shipment of devices using Zigbee in 2016 was 30 to 40 million units.
　　
The characteristics of Bluetooth low energy consumption, low cost, stability and security also meet the requirements of the Internet of Things. Bluetooth 5 standard applications range from washing machines, refrigerators, air conditioners and other household appliances to personal mobile devices, and even shared bicycles are using Bluetooth technology.

At present, some chip manufacturers have launched corresponding solutions. Nordic Semiconductor launched the first nRF52840 SoC device that supports Bluetooth 5 in December last year, the SKY66112-11 front-end module launched by Skyworks is also compatible with Bluetooth 5.0 technology, and TI has integrated in its CC26XX SimpleLink wireless microcontroller Bluetooth, ZigBee and 6loWPAN standards.

With the rapid development of the Internet of Things industry, Shenzhen Beihang Internet of Things Research Institute (www.buaaiot.org) believes that the future application space of Bluetooth 5 will become larger and larger. In the era of the Internet of Everything, life has become more intelligent. For example, indoor positioning helps shoppers quickly find the location of goods. Hospitals can remotely monitor patients through wearable devices. All equipment in factories needs to be connected to the Internet, and product production progress and equipment can be traced through the Internet of Things. It is also necessary to use data analysis to improve production efficiency and so on.