Bluetooth 5
Bluetooth 5 is the latest Bluetooth standard, and significantly increases the range, speed, and broadcast messaging capacity of Bluetooth applications.This makes the protocol highly suitable for use in industries such as smart home, home care, and building management solutions.
Bluetooth 5 includes a range of new optional features, including:
Bluetooth Classic support
Bluetooth Low Energy
Long Range
The Squid.link gateways include two options for Bluetooth 5: A standard Bluetooth 5.1 on-board chip supporting Bluetooth Classic and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), and an optional High Power 5.2 module, supporting Bluetooth Low Energy including Long Range.
The Squid.link gateways SDK includes Bluetooth standard OTS, Beacon and many other features.
Bluetooth Classic
Bluetooth Classic is needed for communication with Bluetooth Classic devices. The Squid.link 2X also includes a high-quality Bluetooth Classic Audio profile (A2DP).
Bluetooth Long Range
A new optional feature in Bluetooth 5 is Bluetooth Long Range. This feature allows the units to negotiate data rate, in order to increase range. The functional range can be up to four times the standard Bluetooth range. This allows Bluetooth networks to be used in areas that require a wider functional range, such as smart home and building management solutions, wheredevices need to operate further away from gateways.
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
Bluetooth 5 also supports Bluetooth Low Energy as an optional feature, which lowers battery consumption significantly, and is mainly suited for battery powered devices such as wearables. Bluetooth Low Energy is excellent for sending small amounts of data with a high frequency. It uses very little energy in the process, which conveniently means less charging along the way.
This makes Bluetooth Low Energy well suited for home care and assisted living solutions where close monitoring and surveillance of persons is needed. A Bluetooth Low Energy-enabled product could, for example, keep an eye on elderly people by measuring their physical well-being. The device sends the collected information to a central gateway that again communicates with a backend program where the data can be handled.
Secure
Bluetooth 5 is a secure protocol that can protect the users' data and identity.
Low-power
Bluetooth 5 uses very little energy, helping battery-powered devices last for a long time.
Interoperable
Bluetooth 5 is interoperable across platforms
Bluetooth Low Energy 4.2
Bluetooth Low Energy 4.2 (BLE 4.2) is a personal area network developed to meet the increasing demand in the market for Internet of Things products. BLE 4.2 is a suitable protocol to use with devices that run on batteries and that need to last for a long time.
The low power Bluetooth protocol is recognized for being interoperable across platforms, and it is easy to work with in the development of new devices. BLE 4.2 is a low-cost standard which allows you to focus on what is important for your business.
The Squid.link Gateway
The Squid.link Gateway is an extremely flexible solution for connecting networks based on different technologies, including Bluetooth 5. The gateway is a modular platform for flexible Home Area Networks (HAN). With Squid.link Gateway, you are no longer dependent on one vendor but can combine your Home Area Network exactly the way you prefer.
