Bluetooth Low Energy Basics: Classic Bluetooth Vs. Bluetooth LE

Bluetooth Low Energy Basics: Classic Bluetooth Vs. Bluetooth LE

Blog Article

Overview of Bluetooth Technology
In this article, we will focus on the main differences between Classic Bluetooth Vs. Bluetooth Low Energy.

Bluetooth technology is a wireless communication standard that allows devices to connect and exchange data over short distances. It has become a popular technology in the field of IoT (Internet of Things) and has been widely adopted in various devices such as smartphones, laptops, speakers, and many more.

Bluetooth technology can be divided into two main categories: Classic Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Both technologies use the Bluetooth protocol but are designed for different purposes and have different characteristics.

Classic Bluetooth
Classic Bluetooth is the original version of Bluetooth technology that was first introduced in 1999. It was designed for high-bandwidth applications such as streaming audio and video and supports devices with higher power requirements. Classic Bluetooth uses the 2.4 GHz ISM (Industrial, Scientific, and Medical) band and has a maximum data rate of 3 Mbps.

It has a range of up to 100 meters, making it suitable for indoor and outdoor use. Classic Bluetooth devices can connect to other devices using a variety of protocols such as A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) for audio streaming and AVRCP (Audio/Video Remote Control Profile) for remote control of audio and video devices.
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is a newer version of Bluetooth technology that was introduced in 2010. BLE, also known as Bluetooth Smart, is designed for low-power applications such as fitness trackers, smart home devices, and beacons. BLE uses the same 2.4 GHz ISM band as Classic Bluetooth, but it has a lower power consumption and a shorter range.

BLE devices can run on a coin cell battery for months or even years. BLE has a maximum data rate of 1 Mbps and a range of up to 50 meters. BLE devices can connect to other devices using a variety of protocols such as GATT (Generic Attribute Profile) for data exchange and GAP (Generic Access Profile) for device discovery and connection.

Difference Between Bluetooth Classic vs. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
One of the main differences between Classic Bluetooth and BLE is their power consumption. Classic Bluetooth devices consume more power than BLE devices, which makes them less suitable for portable and battery-powered applications. BLE devices are designed to consume very little power, making them ideal for applications that run on small batteries. This is why BLE is commonly used in IoT devices such as fitness trackers, smartwatches, and other wearable devices.

Classic Bluetooth Vs. Bluetooth Low Energy

Another difference between Classic Bluetooth and BLE is the range of their communication. Classic Bluetooth has a longer range than BLE, making it suitable for applications that require a larger coverage area. BLE has a shorter range, making it more suitable for applications that require a smaller coverage area such as indoor navigation or location-based services.

In terms of security, both Classic Bluetooth and BLE offer similar security features such as encryption and authentication. However, BLE devices can also use secure connections, which provide an additional layer of security by using a secure key exchange protocol to establish a secure connection between devices.

S.N. Features Bluetooth Classic Bluetooth Low Energy
1 Frequency Band 2.4 GHZ ISM Band
(2.402 GHZ-2.480 GHZ Utilized) 2.4 GHZ ISM Band
(2.402 GHZ-2.480 GHZ Utilized)
2 No. of Channels 79 Channel each of width 1 MHZ 40 Channel each of width 2 MHZ
3 Channel Usage/Spreading Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)
4 Power Consumption High (Approx. 1W) Low (Approx. 0.001 W-0.5 W)
5 Communication Range 10m to 30m 10m to 30m
6 Data Rate 1 Mbps for BR
2-3 Mbps for EDR 500kbps-1Mbps
7 Modulation Technique GFSK for BR
8-DPSK or π/4-DQPSK for EDR GFSK
8 Communication Direction Two way directional (Bidirectional) One way direction (Unidirectional)
9 Device pairing Required Not Required
10 Voice capable Yes No
11 Latency 100 ms 6 ms
12 Usage cases Used for streaming applications like audio streaming, file transfer and headsets Used for sensor data, control of devices, and low bandwidth applications
How Does BLE Works?
The BLE uses the same hopping technology as Bluetooth classic uses. It transmits data and connects to several electronic devices through a 2.4 GHz frequency band. It is designed to consume less power with slow data transmission. When two devices are connected through the BLE network, the communication occurs only for a few seconds. This means BLE enables sleep mode or shut down activity between each connection. i.e. BLE device can communicate and transmit data effectively when it is necessary and hence consume less energy.

The BLE device communication can occur in two different ways. They are connection-oriented and broadcast-based communication.

Connection-Oriented Communication:
In connection-oriented communication, a BLE device can behave as a central device or peripheral device. It acts as the primary device and plays a role as the client computer plays in a computer network. It is responsible for searching for other devices in a network that can connect to it. When it finds some device, then it sends out a request for connection and data transmission.

The same BLE device can also act as a peripheral device. In this case, it acts as a server. It receives a request for pairing transmitted from a central device.

The entire communication process occurs in four steps. They are: advertise, initiate, and connect and data exchange. In the advertising stage, The peripheral device sends out timed advertising packets, and the central device scans for and uses the advertising packets to find out the peripheral device. In the initiation stage, the primary device initiates a request for connection. Connection is established in the connection stage and finally, data transmission occurs in the data transmission stage, and data transmission can be bidirectional.

Broadcasting-Based Communication:
Broadcasting-based communication does not require a connection to function. In this form of communication, data only leaves from one end and is received by any BLE device around the broadcaster that can sense the data. i.e. BLE device broadcast raw data in a unidirectional format.

Broadcasting-based communication does not provide data security to shared documents as shared data can be accessed by anyone and any device without control. However, it does have its own application where the security of such shared data is not a concern.

Application of BLE:
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is applicable in several areas. Some common applications of BLE are as follows:

Indoor location Tracking
Tracking of assets and connected objects
Contact and employee tracking
Smart appliances and health or fitness trackers
Access control
Inventory management
Wayfinding and navigation
Proximity marketing
Security and Home automation appliances
Mobile payment
Audio devices

Advantages of BLE:
The followings are the main advantages of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).

Low power consumption
Long standby time
Low development cost
Improvement on tracking
Open access to documentation
More Accurate automatic inventory
Prevalence in smartphones
Disadvantages of BLE:
The followings are the disadvantages of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).

Limited coverage area
Cannot support long-distance communication (Support upto 200m in line of sight)
Cannot support higher data rate as offered by wifi and cellular communication (Support 1 Mbps and 2 Mbps data rates)
Easily impacted by surrounding (like a wall, human body, etc.)
Conclusion
In summary, Classic Bluetooth and BLE are both wireless communication technologies that use the Bluetooth protocol, but they are designed for different purposes and have different characteristics.

Classic Bluetooth is better suited for applications that require high data transfer rates and have access to power, while BLE is better for low-power, low-data rate applications that need to run on small batteries such as IoT devices. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages and the choice between the two depends on the specific requirements of the application.

Check some BLE projects Here:

Bluetooth Low Energy 4.0 Tutorial with Arduino
Create Bluetooth Low Energy Project using Arduino & BleuIO
Make a Simple Bluetooth Low Energy Repeater
Plotting Real-Time Graph from Bluetooth 5.0 to Google Chrome
How to Collect & Export data from Bluetooth Devices
Collecting SHT85 Sensor Data using STM32 & Bluetooth Low Energy