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Is there a limit on iBeacon advertising devices in an area?

Giannis Anastasopoulos

Dear All,

I would like to know if there is any limitation on the number of iBeacon devices that can be detected (scanned) from device.

I assume the answer to that may depend on the iBeacon advertising interval and/or the scanning timings of the device that is performing the scan.

At the moment the iBeacon protocol is implemented on a nRF52832 device and the scanner is on a nRF52840 device.

The iBeacon advertising interval should be on the higher end of the advertising interval spectrum, around 5 seconds or so.

The scan duration can be in the range of minutes.

Ideally I want to be able to detect about 2000 tags that are in close proximity to each other (within a radius of 20m) and to the gateway as well (maximum 30-40 meters).

I know that my hardware supports a radius of ~50m for a single device.

Thank you very much

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  • +1

    Hi,

    I ran a few simulations on the usecase and hopefully the results are helpful. Do accept the answer if it was helpful.

    Thanks
    David

    =

    The advertising interval = 4000ms
    Packet size is 47 bytes with a bit rate of 1 Mbit/s
    Max jitter is 10ms
    Clock drift is 250ppm

    Assumptions:


    The nodes are assumed to be arranged equidistant from the receiver so all of them can equally interfere at the receiver, which would be a worst case scenario.The nodes are close enough so that packets are well within the receive sensitivity threshold.

    The receiver is assumed to be in RX all the time except for the channel switch time, Packet RX complete time. If a typical scanner is used then the interval should be as close to the window as possible for eqivalent results and real results are likely to be worse than the simulated results.

    ==

    Results:

    Simulation for 2000 nodes running the broadcaster role with non connectable advertising (same as the iBeacon).
    All 2000 nodes were detected in a worst case of 21 transmissions. This implies that the scanner needed aboiut 64 seconds, since the interval was set to 4000ms.
    The channel utilization was about 18.4%.

    ==

    Results:

    Simulation for 4000 nodes running the broadcaster role with non connectable advertising (same as the iBeacon).
    All 4000 nodes were detected in a worst case of 36  transmissions. This implies that the scanner needed aboiut 144 seconds, since the interval was set to 4000ms.
    The channel utilization was about 37.6%

    ==

    Results:

    Simulation for 5000 nodes running the broadcaster role with non connectable advertising (same as the iBeacon).
    All 5000 nodes were detected in a worst case of 48  transmissions. This implies that the scanner needed aboiut 192 seconds, since the interval was set to 4000ms.
    The channel utilization was about 47%

Reply
  • +1

    Hi,

    I ran a few simulations on the usecase and hopefully the results are helpful. Do accept the answer if it was helpful.

    Thanks
    David

    =

    The advertising interval = 4000ms
    Packet size is 47 bytes with a bit rate of 1 Mbit/s
    Max jitter is 10ms
    Clock drift is 250ppm

    Assumptions:


    The nodes are assumed to be arranged equidistant from the receiver so all of them can equally interfere at the receiver, which would be a worst case scenario.The nodes are close enough so that packets are well within the receive sensitivity threshold.

    The receiver is assumed to be in RX all the time except for the channel switch time, Packet RX complete time. If a typical scanner is used then the interval should be as close to the window as possible for eqivalent results and real results are likely to be worse than the simulated results.

    ==

    Results:

    Simulation for 2000 nodes running the broadcaster role with non connectable advertising (same as the iBeacon).
    All 2000 nodes were detected in a worst case of 21 transmissions. This implies that the scanner needed aboiut 64 seconds, since the interval was set to 4000ms.
    The channel utilization was about 18.4%.

    ==

    Results:

    Simulation for 4000 nodes running the broadcaster role with non connectable advertising (same as the iBeacon).
    All 4000 nodes were detected in a worst case of 36  transmissions. This implies that the scanner needed aboiut 144 seconds, since the interval was set to 4000ms.
    The channel utilization was about 37.6%

    ==

    Results:

    Simulation for 5000 nodes running the broadcaster role with non connectable advertising (same as the iBeacon).
    All 5000 nodes were detected in a worst case of 48  transmissions. This implies that the scanner needed aboiut 192 seconds, since the interval was set to 4000ms.
    The channel utilization was about 47%

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