Bluetooth has been an integral part of our tech lives since the past decade or so. It’s what we use to connect our wireless headphones, keyboards, mouses, and other accessories to our main computers and smartphones. That said, despite being such an important aspect of wireless technology, Bluetooth has always received a lot of flak. Bluetooth connections are unstable, the file transfer speeds are terrible, and there is no defining feature which makes it stand out. Well, that’s all about to change with the new Bluetooth 5.1 and here is everything that you need to know about it:
To put it plainly, Bluetooth 5.1 is the latest standard of Bluetooth technology which is bringing a ton of new improvements. Built on top of the current, Bluetooth 5.0 standard, the new Bluetooth 5.1 technology will not only improve connection stability but also provide real-time data including location and proximity sensing.
Bluetooth 5.1 is bringing a ton of new improvements which will make the upcoming compatible devices like homing missiles. Basically, it will allow you to find your Bluetooth 5.1 devices and to locate them to a couple of inches their exact location. This is made possible by a number of improvements coming with the Bluetooth 5.1. Here are the major improvements that you need to know about:
One of the biggest improvements coming with the Bluetooth 5.1 is called “Direction Finding” makes it possible for Bluetooth devices to determine the direction of Bluetooth signal transmission. Currently, Bluetooth uses signal strength to estimate distance which is not so accurate. The new Bluetooth 5.1 standard will use a combination of two different methods for determining the angle that a Bluetooth signal is being transmitted from which will result in a high degree of accuracy.
The two methods are called Angle of Arrival (AoA) and Angle of Departure (AoD) and require one of the two communicating devices to have an array of multiple antennae. The antenna is included in the receiving device and transmitting device when AoA and AoD methods are being used respectively. This new feature allows the Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) controller in the receiving device to generate a set of data which can be used to calculate the directional angle between receiving and transmitting device.
All Bluetooth Low Energy connected devices use the Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) for establishing a connection with each other. All GATT devices contain a database known as the attributes table which consists of device identifier information such as GATT service, characteristic, and descriptor structural details and values. Whenever a Bluetooth device is establishing a connection with another device, it sends a service discovery request to acquire these attributes and use it to establish this connection.
Since the discovery process is not repeated every time a device is establishing a connection, it results in lower connection drops and improves battery life. Do note, that GATT Caching is a fairly complex subject like all the other points that we are discussing in this article. I have tried to oversimplify these topics to make it easier to understand. For full technical details, you should visit the official Bluetooth website.
There are two major enhancements coming to the Bluetooth advertising feature which are mentioned below:
Randomized Advertising Channel Indexing
Today we are surrounded by connected devices and most of them are using the same radio channels, they often cause connection problems with each other, a concept which I have explained thoroughly in our 5 GHz explanation article. While Bluetooth is starkly different from WiFi, the same basic concept applies here too which means that in an area where too many Bluetooth devices are advertising their connection, they will interact and cause connection problems. Bluetooth 5.1 aims to solve this problem by bringing Bluetooth advertising enhancements.
With Bluetooth 5.1, devices will not have to follow the strict protocol of transmitting data packets in the specified sequence mentioned above. Instead, devices can now select channels at random which reduces the potential for advertising packet collisions.
Periodic Advertising Sync Transfer
The current Bluetooth 5.0 standard comes with a “SyncInfo” feature which allows Bluetooth devices to synchronize their advertising and scanning schedules. What this means is that a master and a client device sync with each other so that the master device is advertising connection at the same time when the client device is requesting it. This results in lower power consumption as both the devices are transmitting data packets at the same time so the chances of missing connection requests are slim to none.
Apart from above-mentioned major enhancements, Bluetooth 5.1 is also bringing a ton of minor enhancements. Firstly, There’s a new Sleep Clock Accuracy Update mechanism which results in lower power consumption. It is also bringing HCI support for debugging keys in low energy secure connections. It has also become permissible to include SID and ADI in scan response reports and scan response packets respectively. If you don’t understand what any of this means, don’t worry. Just know that these minor improvements are aimed at improving the security and decreasing power consumption by Bluetooth LE devices.
Bluetooth 5.1 vs Bluetooth 5.0
If you have read the entire article, you should already know the improvements that are coming with Bluetooth 5.0. I have added this section just to summarize everything here. The new Bluetooth 5.1 standard is released to bring improved location finding and connection reliability. While Bluetooth 5.0 was able to help you find your Bluetooth devices, it was not that accurate. The new direction finding improvements coming with Bluetooth 5.1 will now allow users to locate their Bluetooth devices within inches of their exact location.
Bluetooth 5.1 has just been released to developers who will utilize its underpinning technology to bring improved Bluetooth devices. However, that will take at least a year and you will only be able to see first Bluetooth 5.1 compatible devices by the start of next year.
