What is a Beacon?

A beacon is a small transmitter that is attached to an object and produces a signal. The beacon broadcasts a simple ID, that is then identified by a reader. The reader, which can be a smartphone, then pulls the related data from the cloud. The signal broadcast by the beacon includes its ID, firmware, battery level, and potentially other data. It does not include location data, which is determined by the signal strength at the receiver.

This allows, for example, for a museum’s smartphone app to provide a visitor with information about an exhibit sent directly to their phone without them needing to stop and scan a QR code. Beacons can also be used for indoor navigation, triggering automated events (for example, when you walk into a trade show booth, it might start the video playing), and for security.

Fixed beacons are used because they don’t track individuals, which is a privacy concern in most public areas. Users consent to receive beacon notifications when they download the app. They also have to turn Bluetooth on when using BLE beacons. (More on the tech differences later). The big difference between beacons and tags is that beacons are stationary, while tags move.
 

What is Bluetooth RTLS?

Real-time location systems (RTLS) have become the foundation for applications that boost efficiency, productivity and safety in every industry you can think of. The ability to accurately locate and track assets and people allows processes to be optimized and helps employees to focus on activities that bring more value to the organization. This insight into how physical objects move, viewed through a digital prism, has made RTLS crucial to achieving next-level operational efficiencies. It’s become clear that without RTLS, it’s impossible to see everything that’s really going on in a facility.
 

What is a Gateway?

The data from tags or beacons has to be picked up somehow, and that is where gateways come in. Gateways are fixed devices that receive the location or telemetry data from tags and pass it on to the software.

The more gateways you have, the more expensive your system but also the more accurate. When designing a system, gateway locations are vital to get the right level of granularity and ensure there are no dead zones where location tracking ceases to function.

Again, beacons are generally used in cases where you do not want to track people. Tags are used in cases where you do. A museum does not need to know where visitors are, whilst a hospital does. So, which you use depends on your purposes.

Retail stores and other public facing industries generally use a beacon system coupled with a bespoke smartphone app. Warehouses generally use a tag and gateway system to track inventory and help employees do their jobs better.
 

What is BLE?

BLE stands for Bluetooth Low Energy. It uses the Bluetooth wireless protocol, which is standard in phones (and many other devices).

BLE can be used for both beacon use cases and tag and gateway. The “low energy” part means that BLE tags tend to last longer than active RFID tags, with their life limited by the battery in both cases. (Classic Bluetooth is known for having high consumption. Remember the days when turning Bluetooth on on your phone killed the battery quickly?)

BLE tags stay powered down until they need to transmit, have a solid range (as much as 100m) and while the tags are more expensive than passive RFID, they are cheaper than active RFID. They are also better suited to advanced applications such as temperature and humidity tracking.

Bluetooth Low Energy is, at current technology levels, a superior standard in many ways. It is essentially the only way to do customer-facing beacons (UWB is currently available only on one high-end smartphone and while it might replace Bluetooth as the standard eventually, that seems unlikely to happen any time soon). It integrates well with other technologies. Bluetooth 5 is backwards compatible with Bluetooth 4.2, and is recommended for new deployments for future proofing. (Bluetooth 5 gateways are available, but most smartphones are still on 4.2).

The batteries are also a little smaller than RFID batteries, making it easier to do tags that are an odd shape. While it can be expensive for large deployments, as accuracy relies on the number of gateways installed, and the price can add up, even reasonably more expensive smartphones are cheaper (and more versatile) than specialist RFID readers.

As you can see, Bluetooth wins for several use cases, and is your only option if you want the beacons or tags to be read using smartphones. New technologies might emerge in the future, but for right now if you are setting up a new system with no existing infrastructure, your best choice for expense and longevity is BLE. BLE is future proof, reasonably-priced and can give you the accuracy you need regardless of whether you are using a beacon-based system or a tag and gateway system for asset and employee tracking.
 

What is iBeacon?

iBeacon, a wireless communication technology. The iBeacon is a standardized BLE frame format defined by Apple to facilitate the integration of BLE beacons into iOS applications. With this protocol, mobile applications can simply and securely receive and use the data generated by iBeacons. Many applications have already been created using the “Point of Interest” feature, where the application triggers a predefined action when the phone enters the range of a beacon.

This function is particularly popular in marketing because it allows to attract and engage with customers in a different and original way.