An analysis of bluetooth 5 in comparison to bluetooth 4.2

Abstract

Bluetooth is a wire free standard of technology aimed at short distance communication. Its early versions are known as the Bluetooth classic whose range was between 10 to 100 meters depending on the version. The classic versions range from Bluetooth 1.0 to Bluetooth 3.0 after which need for longer ranges and lower energy consumption led to the rise of Bluetooth Low Energy 4.0 through to the current version 5 specification. User demands and an advancement in technology has led to release of more Bluetooth versions with features that aim at improving the communication protocol.The main disadvantage for Bluetooth had always been its range limitations hence despite being one of the most commonly used communication protocol in many consumer electronics devices and being available in nearly 5 billion devices it never really hit its full adoption capacity. With Bluetooth 5’s extended range and higher speeds plus the possibility of a mesh protocol Bluetooth now boasts the ability to compete with other communication technologies like ZigBee and Wi-Fi.This paper at analyzes the new Bluetooth 5 protocol specification in comparison to Bluetooth 4.2 in regards to the power consumption, range capabilities, data throughput and Bit Error Rate (BER).The project consists of a client Bluetooth 5 capable SoC (System on Chip) in direct communication with a peripheral. The peripheral must be connected to the computer and will serve as the tester while the client responds to the requests that are sent by the tester. In the process of this interaction different readings that pertain to throughput, range capabilities and power consumption are recorded for analysis. The SoC employed for this system is Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF52840 which is a Bluetooth 5 ready SoC.