Bluetooth Low Energy - Possibilities are endless!

What is Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)

As the name suggests, Bluetooth Smart/LE are devices optimized for low power consumption. It is a light-weight subset of classic Bluetooth and was introduced as part of the Bluetooth 4.0 core specification.

I will be writing a series of posts to describe various elements of BLE. Please share your comments, experiences, suggestions regarding the same.

What makes BLE so interesting

When you think of Bluetooth, what comes in your mind? Headsets, earphones, speakers, transfer files etc. But there is lot more in-store for you. Thanks to Bluetooth Special Interest Group (Bluetooth SIG) and many companies supporting BLE, a wide variety of other devices have come up. From fitness devices to smart lights, from wearables to beacons, all using the technology as a building block towards the "Internet of Things."

BLE support

BLE support is available on most of the platforms as of the versions listed below:

• iOS 5+ (iOS 7+ preferred)
• Android 4.3+ (numerous bug fixes in 4.4+)
• Apple OS X 10.6+
• Windows 8 (XP, Vista and 7 only support Bluetooth 2.1), Windows 8.1 has added support for communicating with Bluetooth devices from the store applications. 
• GNU/Linux Vanilla BlueZ 4.93+

BLE Device Roles

There are two major roles - As Central or Peripheral

• Central: devices are usually the mobile phone or tablet that you connect to with. eg: i{hone, Android mobile or tablets
• Peripheral: devices are small, low power that connect to much more powerful central devices. eg: Temperature sensor, Heart rate sensor, iBeacon etc.

Note: 

• iPhone/iPad can act both as Central or Peripheral, 
• With Lollipop OS, Android can also act as both Central or Peripheral.