iBeacon vs Eddystone

iBeacon Introduction

iBeacon is a precise micro-positioning technology based on Bluetooth 4.0 (Bluetooth Smart) launched by Apple at WWDC in 2013. The underlying technology uses BLE which is supported after the iPhone 4S. When your handheld device, such as a smart phone, is close to a Beacon, the smart phone can receive its signal.

Apple put iBeacon related interfaces into CoreLocation.framework . Google supports this function in Android 4.3 and later versions. To apply iBeacon technology, developers only need to meet the iBeacon technology standards. It is now universally used in almost of beacons.

iBeacons Frame Format

The iBeacon broadcast packet frame format is as follows. We can see that the frame format consists of parameters such as broadcast length, type, company ID, iBeacon type, iBeacon length, UUID, Major, Minor, and Signal Power.

Attributes of iBeacon

iBeacon is essentially location information, so Apple has integrated the iBeacon function into Core Location and mainly uses three attributes to identify an iBeacon: Proximity UUID, major and minor.

UUID is used to identify a company. The iBeacon used by each company or organization should have the same Proximity UUID, also known as UUID.

Major is used to identifying a group of associated beacons. For example, in a warehouse, beacons of each type of part should have the same major. The role of a major is similar to grouping to manage a large number of Beacon devices better.

Minor is used to distinguish a specific beacon, and you can assign a minor for each device in a warehouse.

If these attributes are not specified, they will be ignored when the device is paired or received. You can only know the UUID of the Beacon, but can’t differentiate each one of them.

In addition, we can see that the entire iBeacon data payload is fixed, and each piece of code is restricted. If you want to use it on mobile phones, developers or users can only use the same format and cannot make additional modifications or develop it yourself.

If you use a Bluetooth beacon or a Bluetooth sensor and a Bluetooth gateway (receiving device), you can change the data format as needed, as long as the receiving device can decode it. In this way, data from various sensors can be transmitted using the iBeacon protocol. For some technologies like LoRaWAN, the data rate is slow, and the package size is small. The gateway should filter useless data and only send useful ones. For more information, please refer to “How Lansitec Bluetooth Gateway works”, document Number 990 -00522.

Eddystone Introduction

Eddystone is a cross-platform open-source beacon format Bluetooth LE beacon launched by Google on July 15, 2015. It is mainly used to send information to people in public places.

Since Google has positioned it as an open-source project, according to tradition, Google does not name those open-source projects with the name of Google.

For example, the Android operating system does not use the name Google. The public does not need to know which company developed Eddystone, only the Beacon OEMs and corresponding app developers know.

Properties of Eddystone

In addition to the advantage of being opensource, Eddystone also supports multiple frameworks. iBeacon and Google’s The Physical Web only support one.

The Eddystone multiple frameworks contain data in four formats: UUID, URL, TLM, and EID.

The original intention of Eddystone’s UID is to be compatible with iBeacon UUID. To break the limitation of only iBeacon UUID, the UID can be freely set by the merchant, and the app can choose to only accept messages from this UID. Through the unique identification code of the UID, the merchant app can also find out which branch the user is globally and push corresponding information, such as coupons, Wi-Fi connection, etc.

URL links are obviously more widely used and simpler than UUIDs. Any mobile phone has a browser, and they can open the URL.

TLM, this remote telemetry framework, is useful for businesses that need to control many beacons. Since beacons are mostly batterypowered, they will need to be replaced or recharged after some time. The telemetry data frame allows the Beacon to send its status and power information to surrounding workers, so that workers can perform maintenance and replacement.

EID is a security framework, a beacon that allows only authorized users to read information. For example, in a company, beacons are placed in the lobby to broadcast to all customers and visitors. However, the company also has messages only for employees, and it doesn’t want these messages to be seen by customers and visitors.

Eddystone Frame Format

Instead of using the manufacturer data field, Eddystone places the value 0xFEAA in the full 16-bit service UUID field and uses the associated service data field to hold the Beacon information. Full details can be found below:

Eddystone Use Scenarios

• In close-range promotion of products, such as customers shopping near supermarkets and restaurants
• Obtain location information at airports, railway stations, scenic spots, and museums
• Track assets to prevent loss
• Navigate indoors in shopping malls
• Transmit data from sensors

Lansitec LoRa Bluetooth gateway supports both iBeacon and Eddystone. For more information, please refer to ‘How Lansitec Bluetooth Gateway works’, doc. Number 990-00522.

How Beacon Devices Use BLE

The content above shows us what BLE, Beacon, iBeacon, and Eddystone are. So, how do beacon devices realize functions based on BLE technology? First of all, let’s take a look at the complete connection process of BLE.

BLE’s Broadcast Scan Connect Process

The master and the receiver must be connected to build a one-on-one channel before data communication for devices like headsets, speaker or Bluetooth OTA. The connection includes four steps: advertising, scanning, initiating, and connection.

We will not go into the details in this paper. Please contact us if you want to know more about it.

How to use a Beacon

Beacon devices only use the advertisement channels, so there is no BLE follow-up connection-related steps. And, this is precisely the reason beacon is used at the application field of low-power indoor precise positioning and sensor data advertising. As the literal meaning of beacon, this device sends data packets at a fixed time interval, and the data can be received by a Central device such as a mobile phone or a Bluetooth gateway.

E.g., A temperature and humidity sensor, the data can be put into the iBeacon payload and the sensor advertises it every second. The sensor does not connect with any other devices. And the Bluetooth gateway nearby only receives the message of the Beacon, and then transfers the temperature, humidity, major and minor to the server or based station through the backhaul. If it is a LoRa-based Bluetooth gateway, the Bluetooth gateway can transmit the data to a LoRa gateway through LoRa, and then to the cloud. As shown below.

To cite an internal example, we deployed a beacon at the entrance. When a tracker or a Bluetooth gateway receives the payload, it filters the UUID, major, and minor and then forward major, minor and RSSI to a LoRaWAN gateway, then to the cloud. The server calculates the distance between the Beacon and tracker with RSSI to determine where the tracker is.

Since the advertiser and the receiver operate on channel 37, 38, and 39 randomly, if a beacon advertises every 1s and a gateway opens a ‘1s receiving window’ periodically, there is a chance that the gateway can’t receive the Beacon. We recommend setting the receiving duration more than two times before the beacon’s advertisement interval.

With the popularization of LPWAN, WIFI, and 5G technologies, Beacon application cases based on BLE technology have blossomed everywhere in the market. Beacon technology, especially Beacon+LPWAN technology, has many proven solutions on the market, such as smart parking lots, museums, warehouses, cold-chains, stores, nursing homes, hospitals, exhibition centers, and other Beacon application solutions. Read the whitepaper here.