How many BLE devices can coexist in the same area?

Question

Hej Nordicsemi, 
 We're developing a new product based on Bluetooth LE. And we would like to know if thousands of BLE devices can coexist in the same area. Preferable all should be able to send send a short beacon with their ID every 5-10 seconds. 
 Is there any limits on how many BLE devices?
Is an iPhone able to receive beacons from hundreds of tags within short time intervals? 
 I hope you can direct me to an application engineer that can support this project. 
 Br Morten:)
www.x-flex.dk

John Leonard · Accepted Answer

Hi Morten, this really all boils down to available bandwidth, transmission duty-cycle and physical proximity. If all the devices plan to talk to one 'hub' then the potential will be drastically reduced. 
 There isn't a specific limitation specified for maximum number of connectable devices in one area in the Bluetooth specification. However this requires looking at the size of each packet payload + all overhead and factor into your calculations how many of those transmission could happen in a set period. 
 So for instance every 10 secs would give your potentially 10 million bits to play with at BLE's rate of 1Mbs, you can divide your packet into that. I would stress though that this is at the highest level, there will be turnaround times and other timing considerations that will pull this theoretical figure down a long way. Also phone manufacturers can of course implement their own limitations if they don't want the phone to be used in such a way.