It is exciting to see that the Bluetooth SIG officially announced a preview of its technology roadmap for 2016[1]. This will enable new applications and innovative products with Bluetooth Smart in the future that take advantage of the benefits of longer range, faster speed and mesh networking.
The nRF5x platform from Nordic Semiconductor was designed to be future proof, with its flexible architecture and entire Bluetooth
Smart stack residing in flash memory. Allowing our customers to design new products with new features and/or update products in the field via the unique and secure Over-the-Air device firmware upgrade. The nRF52 Series was designed with the evolution of Bluetooth Smart in mind. It is the most powerful and lowest power Bluetooth Smart SoC in the market today and together with our SoftDevices and comprehensive SDK, it is the a perfect platform for tomorrow’s Bluetooth Smart applications.
Let’s take a closer look at the new features of Bluetooth Smart and what they can bring to both new and existing products.
Faster speed, with the announced 100% increase in speed, this will enable faster data transfer at the same level of power consumption. In applications transferring a lot of data such as; medical devices, sports watches, products supporting Over-the-Air upgrades etc, a higher speed will improve the user experience with an improved responsiveness and will increase the battery lifetime of the products. The increased speed also opens up possibillities for new applications requiring higher throughput i.e., audio applications or other type of streaming applications. The nRF52832 multiprotocol SoC will support higher speed with a firmware upgrade.
Longer range, with the announced 4x range, will enable applications to achieve total house coverage and make it a good fit for battery driven smart home sensors and actuators, such as smoke alarms, door locks and much more. In addition to this, it will make the radio links more robust and thus an even more attractive technology for industrial type of applications. To take full advantage of the longer range capabilities of the next generation of Bluetooth Smart, a new nRF52 Series device will be introduced later in 2016.
Mesh networking, this will allow Bluetooth Smart devices to form larger networks covering even larger areas. This is attractive to applications requiring higher robustness of the network, lighting applications in larger residential buildings or other type of industrial applications. The nRF51- and nRF52 Series SoCs will support Bluetooth Mesh networking through software update.
Take advantage of the next generation of Bluetooth once released get started with the nRF52 DK today.
The nRF52 Series is ready for the next generation of Bluetooth Smart. Let us innovate together!
[1] http://www.bluetooth.com/news/pressreleases/2015/11/11/bluetooth-technology-to-gain-longer-rangefaster-speedand-mesh-networking-in-2016
