What are the Bluetooth versions? A brief discussion on Bluetooth 5.0 and its difference from Wifi

Wireless networks are widely used, and short-range wireless technologies such as infrared, Bluetooth, ZigBee, ANT, NFC, UWB, LiFiTransferJet, etc. are derived. As the application of the Internet of Things gradually attracts attention, the low-cost and widely used Bluetooth technology has attracted much attention.

Bluetooth is a wireless personal area network (Wireless PAN) originally created by Ericsson. It was called "Bluetooth" in Chinese at first, and later it was set as a global technical standard by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (Bluetooth SIG), and officially named "Bluetooth". The word Bluetooth comes from the 10th century Danish and Norwegian King Harald Bluetooth (Danish: Harald Blåtand Gormsen). The name is directly translated into Chinese as Bluetooth (blå=blue, tand=tooth) based on the king's nickname Blåtand. Bluetooth versions range from the earliest version 0.7 in 1988 to version 5.0 in June 2016.

So, what are the differences between the versions? What are the features of the latest version of Bluetooth 5.0? What are the differences between Bluetooth 5.0 and WiFi? The following is a summary and explanation:

1. Bluetooth versions

Bluetooth is a technology standard led by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). It uses the 2.4 to 2.485 GHz ISM band for communication and focuses on personal area networks (PANs). Bluetooth versions started with version 0.7 in 1988 and have 14 versions to date. The latest version is Bluetooth 5.0, which was released in June 2016.

+EDR and +HS appeared in Bluetooth specification since V2.0. What do +EDR and +HS mean?

EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) is related to data transmission acceleration. Without it, the speed is only 1Mbps. With +EDR, the speed will increase to 3Mbps.

HS (High Speed) stands for high-speed transmission. +HS (High Speed) is added to versions after V3.0 because it uses Wi-Fi's Generic Alternate MAC/PHY (AMP) and 802.11 Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL). By utilizing Wi-Fi's radio frequency technology, Bluetooth can achieve a transmission rate close to Wi-Fi's. The speed can reach 24Mbps, which is 8 times that of +EDR, but the transmission distance must be within 10 meters.

The "+" symbol indicates that it is optional and not a standard specification.

Since Bluetooth V4.0, there are classic Bluetooth, high-speed Bluetooth and low-power Bluetooth. What do they mean?

• The traditional Bluetooth standard is mainly used for message transmission and device connection, with a transmission speed of 1 to 3 Mbps and a distance of 10 meters or 100 meters;
• High-speed Bluetooth (Bluetooth HS) focuses on data exchange and transmission, with a maximum speed of 24Mbps, which is 8 times that of traditional Bluetooth;
• Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE, also known as Bluetooth Smart) is aimed at the low power consumption needs of wearable devices (such as watches, sports fitness/healthcare products) or industrial automation. It is a branch standard announced in 2010. The distance is within 30 meters and the transmission speed is 1Mbps.

In addition, Bluetooth 4.0 is also divided into Single mode and Dual mode. Single mode can only transmit with BT4.0 and is not backward compatible (cannot communicate with 3.0/2.1/2.0); Dual mode is backward compatible and can transmit with BT4.0 and 3.0/2.1/2.0.

2. Features of Bluetooth 5.0

Bluetooth 5.0 was officially announced in June 2016. Compared with Bluetooth 4.2, Bluetooth 5.0 can provide 2 times the transmission speed in low-power technology (BLE), while the coverage range is increased by 4 times, and it has 8 times the broadcast data carrying capacity. The main features are as follows:

• Faster speeds: Bluetooth transmission speeds are 2Mbps, twice as fast as the previous 4.2 LE (Low Energy) version.
• Longer effective distance: The effective distance of Bluetooth 5.0 is four times that of the previous 4.2LE version. In theory, the effective working distance between Bluetooth transmitting and receiving devices can reach 300 meters.
• More transmission functions: Bluetooth 5.0 can add more data transmission functions, and the data transmission capacity can be increased by 8 times. In addition, hardware manufacturers can use Bluetooth 5.0 to create more complex connection systems, such as Beacon or location services.
• Indoor navigation function: Bluetooth 5.0 enhances navigation function, so the technology can be used as an indoor navigation beacon or similar positioning device. Combined with WiFi, it can achieve indoor positioning with an accuracy of less than 1 meter.
• Lower power consumption and optimization for IoT specifications: Bluetooth 5.0 has made many low-level optimizations for the IoT and locked in important specifications for smart home, audio, and IoT, striving to serve smart homes with lower power consumption and higher performance.
• Better security and anti-interference: Bluetooth 5.0's security meets the US federal safety standard level, ensuring that all Bluetooth devices can meet and exceed strict government safety standards. In addition, Bluetooth 5.0 has stronger anti-interference capabilities, especially for Wi-Fi and LTE signals, which can avoid "signal jams" in limited spaces to a certain extent.
• New hardware required: Unlike previous Bluetooth versions, Bluetooth 5.0 requires new processor chip hardware. Qualcomm S835 processor supports Bluetooth 5.0. Bluetooth 5.0 still maintains backward compatibility with previous Bluetooth versions.

3. Differences between Bluetooth 5.0 and WiFi:

The Bluetooth 5.0 technical specifications focus on the standards of the Internet of Things and smart homes. Compared with WiFi transmission, the advantages of Bluetooth transmission are power saving, high security, high compatibility, longer effective distance and low cost, but the disadvantage is slower network speed.

The differences between Bluetooth 5.0 and WiFi are as follows:

• Power saving: The transmission power and standby power consumption of Bluetooth 5.0 are lower than those of WiFi. In standby mode, when sharing with one device, Wi-Fi sharing consumes an average of 10% of power for one hour, but Bluetooth power consumption is 1/3 of that of WIFI.
• Higher security: Bluetooth also provides two layers of password protection, while the security risks of WiFi are the same as other networks. Once someone gains partial access rights, they can access the entire network. In terms of security, Bluetooth 5.0 is better than WiFi.
• Longer communication distance: The effective distance of traditional Bluetooth is about 10 meters, while Bluetooth 5.0 can reach up to 150 meters; the effective distance of WiFi is generally 50~100 meters. The effective distance of WiFi is better than traditional Bluetooth, but worse than Bluetooth 5.0.
• Lower cost: Bluetooth 5.0 is smaller in size and cheaper in cost than WiFi modules.
• Lower mutual interference: Bluetooth 5.0 has stronger anti-interference ability, especially for Wi-Fi and LTE signals, which can avoid "signal jams" in limited spaces to a certain extent, and the mutual interference is lower than WiFi. However, both Bluetooth and WiFi use the 2.4GHz frequency band, which is quite crowded. To reduce signal interference, many users will choose 5GHz band Wi-Fi instead of 2.4GHz.
• Slow transmission speed: Due to its low power consumption design, the biggest disadvantage of Bluetooth 5.0 is that its transmission speed is about 1 ~ 3Mbps. Compared with Wi-Fi (fourth generation 802.11n), which can use 2.4GHz or 5GHz, 20 and 40MHz bandwidth, the fastest speed is 72 and 150Mbps, respectively. Therefore, the transmission speed of Bluetooth 5.0 is not suitable for video or large file data transmission.

In general, Bluetooth 5.0 is a technical specification for the Internet of Things, smart home appliances, and wearable devices. It is ahead of WiFi in these areas. However, WiFi has the highest wireless transmission speed and still has an irreplaceable position in large-scale data transmission and mobile network sharing. Although short-range wireless technologies have sprung up, except for NFC, which has established a foothold in mobile payments, Bluetooth and WiFi are still the two most promising short-range wireless technologies with the advantage of being adopted by many mobile devices.