BLE Beacons: The Future of Accurate Indoor Location Tracking

Location tracking services have driven the evolution of Bluetooth technology, which initially started as a means for communication between two devices but has now expanded to include high accuracy positioning capabilities.

Bluetooth Low Energy or BLE is a radio frequency technology for wireless communication that can be used to detect and track the location of people, devices and assets. The growth of BLE technology brought fundamental change to the global Bluetooth ecosystem.

BLE Beacons

BLE beacons are small, versatile, and low-power Bluetooth transmitters that can be detected by wireless devices like BLE-enabled smartphones. Beacons can be deployed in fixed positions, such as mounted on walls or structures, or placed on mobile assets, to provide location references for indoor positioning applications.

BLE beacons can be used to find a device’s location and deliver relevant content, such as documents, videos, apps, and more, or offer guidance concerning the time or location of the user, keeping users informed and engaged. Beacons comes in all shapes and sizes. Many beacons have long lasting internal batteries that operate over multiple years. Even virtual beacons can also be used without the need for much extra hardware.  

Bluetooth Positioning

BLE indoor positioning solutions use either BLE-enabled sensors or beacons to detect and locate transmitting Bluetooth devices, such as smartphones or tracking tags throughout indoor spaces. Location tracking data collected by the sensors or sent from beacons to mobile devices is then ingested by various location tracking applications.

BLE Positioning with Sensors

BLE positioning with sensors utilizes BLE-enabled sensors that are deployed in fixed positions throughout an indoor space.  These location tracking sensors passively detect and locate transmissions from BLE smartphones, beacons etc. This location tracking data is then sent to the central indoor positioning system or real time location system.  The location engine then analyses the data to the determine the location of the transmitting device.

BLE Positioning with Beacons

In this case BLE beacons repeatedly pulse out the BLE signals. These signals can be detected by surrounding devices including smartphones and BLE-enabled sensors. BLE beacons repeatedly pulse out BLE signals. These signals can be detected by surrounding devices, including smartphones and BLE-enabled sensors. Deployed in fixed positions throughout an indoor space, the signal continuously broadcasted by the beacon contains its unique identifier.

A smartphone or other wireless device that is enabled with a dedicated app or pre-configured service, when in range of the beacon, will receive and analyse the signal from the beacon in a user-centric approach or send this information to a server in a server-centric approach.

The detection between one beacon and a device can enable proximity-based location services that determine whether a beacon and device are in range of each other.  BLE beacons can also be deployed on mobile objects and detected and located by fixed BLE-enabled sensors, which can be useful in asset tracking scenarios.

Accuracy of Bluetooth Positioning

The accuracy of BLE indoor positioning and real-time location systems can yield different levels of accuracy depending on the things that have been used to construct it

Bluetooth, similar to Wi-Fi technologies, typically rely on signal strength (RSSI) to estimate the locations of devices. This method of determining location tracking typically yields positional accuracy in the meter level and is much less precise

Range of BLE

The range of BLE positioning can differ depending on factors such as whether you are using BLE beacons or BLE-enabled sensors or the nature of the indoor space. BLE generally operates over a shorter range than other RF technologies.