Wibree

1.ABSTRACT

Nowadays the wireless technologies are more in use and are widely evolving. Some

of the technologies now in use are Wi-Fi, Wi-max, Zigbee, Bluetooth… Out of which

Bluetooth is most popular. These technologies are widely used to connect the large devices

like mobile phones or personal computers. No other existing wireless technologies will

connect with small button cell battery devices so effectively. So the Nokia introduced the

new radio technology called Wibree.

Wibree is a new radio technology developed by Nokia. It consumes only a fraction of

the power compared to other such radio technologies, enabling smaller and less costly

implementations and it is easy to integrate with Bluetooth solutions. Wibree is the first open

technology offering connectivity between mobile devices or personal computers, and small,

button cell battery power devices such as watches.

Wibree is ultra low power technology. The maximum transmitted output power of

Bluetooth class 2 is 4dBm, (~ 2.5 mW). The total power consumption is much higher. The

output power of Wibree standard will be around -6dBm. Each manufacturer will determine its

own transmit power.

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In order to ensure fast availability of the new technology, Nokia is defining the

Wibree interoperability specification together with a group of leading companies representing

semiconductor manufacturers, device vendors and qualification service providers.

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2.INTRODUCTION

Now that wireless connections are established solutions in various sectors of

consumer electronics, the question arises whether devices that draw long life from a small

battery could find benefit as well in a global standard for wireless low energy technology.

Makers of sensors for sports, health and fitness devices have dabbled in wireless but not

together, while manufacturers of products like watches have never even considered adding

wireless functionality because no options were available. Several wireless technologies have

tried to address the needs of the button cell battery market, but most were proprietary and

garnered little industry support. However, none of these technologies let smaller

manufacturers plug in to a global standard that provides a viable link with devices like mobile

phones and laptops.

However, companies that wants to make their small devices wireless need to build

and sell either a dedicated display unit or an adapter that connects to a computing platform

such as a mobile phone, PC or iPod. There have been few successful products that followed

this route to a mass market. A new flavour of Bluetooth technology may be just the answer,

and a more efficient alternative for yet another wireless standard.

In the ten years since engineers from a handful of companies came together to

create the first Bluetooth specification, Bluetooth technology has become a household term, a

globally recognized standard for connecting portable devices. The Bluetooth brand ranks

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among the top ingredient technology brands worldwide, recognized by a majority of

consumers around the world. A thriving global industry of close to 11,000 member

companies now designs Bluetooth products and works together to develop future generations

of the technology, found in well over 50 percent of mobile phones worldwide and with more

than two billion devices shipped to date. Bluetooth wireless technology has established the

standard for usability, ease of setup and compatibility across all manufacturers. A well-

established set of Bluetooth profiles define the communication needs for a wide range of

applications, making it easy for a manufacturer to add Bluetooth wireless connectivity to new

devices — from phones to headsets to printers — with a minimum of programming and

testing work.

Bluetooth technology’s consumer brand recognition and its years long experience of

software development, testing and validation, are tremendous advantages for any device that

bears the Bluetooth logo. The current Bluetooth radio delivers a combination of fast data rate

and low power consumption that has proven to be the right choice for a range of mobile

phone and PC applications, including hands-free communication, streaming music, printing

and file transfer. But its speed is wasted in applications that require only small bits of

information to be sent infrequently. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) recognizes

that no single radio design will ever offer both maximum data rate and maximum battery life.

With this in mind, the Bluetooth SIG has focused efforts on uniting several wireless

technologies under a single Bluetooth wireless umbrella.

In 2001, Nokia researchers determined that there were various scenarios that

contemporary wireless technologies did not address. To address the problem, Nokia Research

Centre started the development of a wireless technology adapted from the Bluetooth standard

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which would provide lower power usage and price while minimizing difference between

Bluetooth and the new technology. The results were published in 2004 using the name

Bluetooth Low End Extension. After further development with partners, e.g., within EU FP6

project MIMOSA, the technology was released to public in October 2006 with brand name

Wibree. In June 2007, the Bluetooth SIG announced it would bring Nokia’s Wibree under the

Bluetooth umbrella to create a low energy version of Bluetooth wireless technology. The

result: a wireless technology with a considerable battery life that will be measured in years

and even lower power consumption than other standards based technologies, but able to

communicate with over a billion of Bluetooth devices shipped each year. As of June, 2007

Wibree is known as Bluetooth ultra low power, in 2008 renamed Bluetooth low energy.

In December 2009, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) announced the

adoption of Bluetooth low energy wireless technology, the hallmark feature of

the Bluetooth Core Specification v4.0. Bluetooth low energy technology enhances the

opportunities for developers and manufacturers of Bluetooth technology and will bring to life

entirely new markets for devices requiring low cost and low power wireless connectivity.

Specification for the technology is currently ongoing. Nokia is defining the Wibree

interoperability specification together with a group of leading companies representing

semiconductor manufacturers, device vendors and qualification service providers. The

technology will be made available to the industry through an open and preferably existing

forum enabling wide adoption of the technology. The forum solution is under evaluation and

will be defined upon finalization of the specification. Members of the group defining the

specification include Broadcom Corporation, CSR, Epson and Nordic Semiconductor, having

licensed the Wibree technology for commercial chip implementation and

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Suunto43033712.doc and Taiyo Yuden, contributing to the interoperability specification in

their respective areas of expertise.

Wibree is a short-range wireless protocol optimized for low power consumption.

Wibree is intended to compliment Bluetooth communications in certain PAN applications

where small, lightweight design makes standard Bluetooth communication unsuitable or

difficult. For instance, Bluetooth-enabled wristwatches require relatively large transmitters

and batteries, making the devices heavy and uncomfortable. Wibree-enabled wristwatches

can use smaller transmitters and smaller batteries, increasing user comfort and reducing

fatigue while extending battery life.

Fig. 1 A Mobile PAN network

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Wibree operates in the same 2.4 GHz frequency band as Bluetooth, which ensures

backwards hardware compatibility. Due to this, a single antenna can support both protocols,

and many existing Bluetooth devices will require only a simple software update to

communicate with Wibree devices. While these upgraded devices will not benefit from the

size savings dedicated Wibree models enjoy, they will see much improved battery life.

Additionally, compatibility with newer Wibree models will help prolong the lifespan of

existing equipment.

Wibree technology is an important development that opens up new market

opportunities and a whole new range of possibilities for mobile users. In addition to creating

a vast market for sensors, watches and other existing devices, Bluetooth low energy

technology’s ability to connect low power devices to the mobile phone will open new

applications.

Wibree - Bluetooth low energy technology promises a new answer, one with a proven

global standard at its heart.

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3.SPECIFICATION

Bluetooth low energy technology is a next generation wireless communications specification

from the same group that created and continue to expand the original Bluetooth specification

to cover new use cases. Bluetooth low energy technology enables new classes of devices that

can only be viable when an ultra low power radio technology, interoperable profiles and

services are combined together to create an industry wide technology platform. Bluetooth low

energy technology connects everything to anything, phones and watches, watches to shoes,

shoes to web services, and web services to the home answering the long awaited

standardization from many different markets

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 Technical Specification Wibree -Bluetooth low energy

Wibree
Radio frequency 2.4 GHz

Distance/Range 200 m (660 ft)

Over the air data rate 1 Mb/s

Application throughput 0.2 Mb/s

Active slaves Not yet available

128-bit AES with Counter Mode CBC-MAC and application

Security
layer user defined

Adaptive fast frequency hopping, Lazy Acknowledgement, 24-

Robustness
bit CRC, 32-bit Message Integrity Check

Total time to send data

<3 ms
(det.battery life)

Government regulation Worldwide

Certification body Bluetooth SIG

Voice capable No

Network topology Star-bus

Power consumption 0.01 to 0.5 (depending on use case)

Peak current consumption <15 mA (max 15 mA to run on coin cell battery)

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Service discovery Yes
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5.1Wibree security

Wibree is a PAN radio intended for applications and devices with low-power constraints.

Also the security and privacy mechanisms have been scrutinized with this in mind [2].

Session confidentiality is provided by AES encryption, used in counter mode. One AES

block per packet is used to initiate keys for a keyed checksum1 that for encrypted sessions

replaces a CRC checksum deployed in plaintext link-layer PDUs. The lack of support for link

recovery or using is compensated with an optimized session setup. Due to

the statefulness, the AES counters can be maintained in the endpoints, and the fact that the

integrity checks replace the radio checksum contributes to achieving 0%

transmission overhead of the security solution during the session, and keeping it under 15

bytes / 10ms during session setup. To minimise host code size and support slow host

processors, privacy functions as well as key management operations use the AES hardware

block whenever possible - for encryption, key diversification and for constructing

cryptographic authenticators. AES and the cryptographic CRC replacement are the only

deployed algorithms in the specification, and this is also visible in some algorithmic

shortcomings such as in the privacy solution. The keying in Wibree is taking into account the

pre summed imbalance in capability between host and slave devices - accessories will often

have limited or no persistent storage. Keys are based on two disjoint key hierarchies, see Fig.

2, one for confidentiality and one for privacy protection. In session key establishment for a

protected connection as well as for privacy features, only the long-term key sets of the target

device will be used. The long-term confidentiality keys given to peer devices are diversified

from a single device-specific master key.

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The initiator will include the key diversifier in the connect request of every new encrypted

connection, and the target device can on-the-y recalculate the relevant diversification from its

master confidentiality key and the received diversifier. This approach speeds up the

connection process, since persistent storage need not be consulted in the target during session

initiation.

4.IMPLEMENTATION

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Bluetooth low energy technology is designed and optimized for applications with low

effective data throughput. The exciting aspect of Bluetooth low energy is its ability to enable

low cost devices to be made that can send their data all of the way to the web. It’s based on

over ten years of experience and promises to have the fastest growing ecosystem of any

wireless standard.

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Bluetooth low energy (previously known as Wibree) has the potential to be the fastest

shipping wireless technology ever. On April 20th 2009, Fiona Thomson – a key analyst from

IMS Research told the media that the feedback they have had from a market survey was so

positive that they are no longer asking when it will happen, but how long it will take to ship

the first billion chips! That figure could easily be reached and surpassed in the first four

years of shipments. Three chip vendors – Nordic Semiconductor, Texas Instruments and

Cambridge Silicon Radio formally announced their single mode Bluetooth low energy chips

at the meeting, with TI also announcing a dual-mode chipset. Taken together with previous

public statements from CSR, Broadcom and EM Microelectronics, that brings the tally of

Bluetooth low energy chipsets to four single mode chips and three dual mode chips. As well

as the chips themselves, Texas Instruments gave information about a $99 developer’s kit due

later this year and Anritsu supported the momentum with a demonstration of their test system

for Bluetooth low energy, showing live analysis of radio packets. (Shown below for the RF

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cognoscenti.)

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A key concept in Bluetooth low energy technology is the two implementation options:

1. Single mode implementation

2. Dual mode implementation

3.1 Single mode implementation:

The single mode is the one that truly delivers the ultra low power consumption by being a

pure low energy implementation. While classic Bluetooth solutions typically provides battery

lifetime of days to weeks on a rechargeable battery, single mode Bluetooth low energy

technology implementation can provide months to years of lifetime on a standard coin cell

battery. The Wibree stand-alone chip is designed for use with applications which require

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extremely low power consumption, small size, low cost and where only small quantities of

data are transferred.

It's an ideal solution for small devices (like heart-rate monitors) that use only short data

messages and must have long battery life.

Examples of devices that would benefit from the Wibree stand-alone chip are: watches, sports

and wellness devices and human interface devices (HID) such as wireless keyboards.

3.2 Dual mode implementation:

The dual mode combines classic and low energy Bluetooth on a single chip at a very small

price delta compared to a classic Bluetooth chip. In addition the radio circuitry is also shared

between the classic radio and the low energy radio. The dual mode is designed to enable fast

adoption of low energy in classic Bluetooth applications like mobile phones and PC by

providing a very low cost delta as well as removing the need to add another radio. Several

major mobile phone vendors have indicated that they will adopt dual mode devices in their

upcoming phones. The Bluetooth-Wibree dual-mode chip is designed for use in Bluetooth

devices. In this type of implementation, Wibree functionality can be integrated with

Bluetooth for a minor incremental cost by utilizing key Bluetooth components and the

existing Bluetooth RF. This type of implementation allows Bluetooth devices to connect to a

new range of tiny battery-powered devices.

Examples of devices that would benefit from the Bluetooth-Wibree dual-mode chip are

mobile phones and personal computers.

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3.3 Network topologies

Bluetooth low energy technology supports star and star-bus network topology with a no

theoretical limit on the number of active slaves. There are two different cases for the network

topologies:

1. Single and dual mode topology

2. Single mode only topology

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In the single and dual mode topology, the dual mode devices acts as the Hubs and the single

mode devices acts as Nodes. The connection between Hub and Node is a Bluetooth low

energy technology, while the backbone connection between different Hubs is classic

Bluetooth. A Hub does not need to be a dual mode device, meaning that dual mode devices

also can connect to classic Bluetooth devices.

An example of this topology in its simplest form is a mobile phone equipped with a dual

mode device that maintains low energy connection to a single mode pedometer and single

mode watch and at the same time has a classic Bluetooth connection to a stereo headset.

Single mode devices can also be networked on their own without the presence of a dual mode

device. In this case the supported topology is star, where one of the single mode devices acts

as the Hub.

An example of this topology is a TV with a Bluetooth low energy technology remote control.

A single mode device is used in both the remote and the TV, but the one in the TV acts as the

Hub.

3.4 Complete single mode solution

µBlue: Micro ampere Bluetooth® wireless technology from Nordic Semiconductor

µBlue is a complete single mode Bluetooth low energy technology solution. It includes the

nRF8000 family of chips and chipsets combined with µBlue software stacks and device

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profiles. This means that µBlue significantly eases the effort and cost for manufacturers to

make Bluetooth low energy wireless enabled products

Key features of the µBlue nRF8001 include:

1. Highly integrated single mode slave solution

2. 32-pin 5x5mm QFN package

3. Fully embedded radio, link controller, and host subsystem

4. Profiles and application examples included within the µBlue SDK™

5. Sub 15mA peak current consumption

6. Microampere range average current consumption

7. Years of battery operating life for coin cell battery-powered applications (depending

on duty cycle)

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8. Roadmap and availability

µBlue will be a range of single-mode Bluetooth low energy solutions based on a single

chip architecture integrating radio, baseband and microcontroller with fully embedded

Bluetooth low energy software stacks. By providing a complete solution, µBlue

significantly eases the effort and cost for manufacturers to make Bluetooth low energy

wireless enabled products. This high level of integration, tiny chip size, and low external

component count makes µBlue ideal for size-constrained applications like watches and

wearable sensors. µBlue will also be made available in a number of targeted application

variants to suit the specific requirements of products in various market segments.

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µBlue will provide a true ULP wireless solution with peak currents low enough to support

standard coin cell battery operation and micro ampere range average current in connected

mode, enabling months to years of battery lifetime. This means that it will drastically expand

the range of applicable application areas where manufacturers can take advantage of

Bluetooth wireless connectivity as well as deliver an improved user experience in existing

applications. While classic Bluetooth solutions typically require rechargeable batteries and

weekly charging cycles, µBlue will support applications that use non-rechargeable batteries,

such as coin cells, and that therefore need to deliver months to years of battery lifetime to

avoid end-user frustration.

The biggest and most important advantage of µBlue compared other ultra low power

wireless solutions is the mobile phone connectivity. As dual mode implementations are

adopted in mobile phone, µBlue will enable a new category of small battery powered

devices to connect to the mobile phone.

While the single mode implementation is the true ultra low power solution in Bluetooth

low energy, crucially important for its wide scale adoption will be its dual-mode

implementation. Dual mode will combine Bluetooth low energy and classic Bluetooth on

a single chip with a very small price delta compared to a classic Bluetooth solution.

Combined with the fact that the two radio technologies can share most of the radio

circuitry, Bluetooth low energy has the potential for fast and near saturation adoption in

classic Bluetooth applications like mobile phones. With this connectivity to mobile

phones, µBlue will enable manufacturers to create new and innovative products centered

on the cellphone. Not only is the cellphone a natural hub device, but the latest designs

also typically feature Internet connectivity and large color displays that can all be

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leveraged for new applications. The ultra low power consumption of µBlue does not

come with a compromise on radio performance. µBlue is built on the latest class-leading

ULP 2.4 GHz radio technologies and is therefore expected to deliver best-in-class

sensitivity and blocking performance from launch.

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5. Bluetooth, Zigbee, and Wibree:

A Comparison of WPAN Technologies

4.1 Introduction and Background

Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) designs have been flourishing in recent years. The

pervasive success of Bluetooth has been a boon to all devices in the IEEE 802.15 working

group. Wibree is a technology that has been under development by Nokia since 2001. It was

originally adapted from the Bluetooth specification, and in 2006, the Bluetooth Special

Interest Group (SIG) announced it would be adopting Wibree into the Bluetooth

specification. Integrated Bluetooth/Wibree devices are not yet shipping, though Nordic

Semiconductor has published a preliminary product specification. While the Wibree and

Bluetooth specs are being integrated, the new name of the Wibree technology has changed

several times.

While Wibree has been under development, the competing IEEE 802.15.4 technology of

Zigbee has been available to the public for several years. ZigBee was designed as a low

power, low-cost, low-speed solution, and has many benefits over Bluetooth, though fewer

benefits over Wibree.

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4.2 Detailed Technology Comparison

4.2.1 Frequency Band

All three technologies operate in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz spectrum, while Zigbee can also

operate at reduced speeds at 915MHz and 868 MHz

4.2.2 Antenna and Hardware

Wibreeʼs adoption into the Bluetooth spec was directly related to the fact that it can coexist

on BT hardware. Devices that wish to take advantage of both Bluetooth and Wibree will not

need to add extra hardware; one antenna will do for both. Zigbee support, however, requires

its own hardware and antenna.

4.2.3 Power and Battery Life

Zigbee, designed to be a low-power alternative to Bluetooth, offers 30mW performance

compared to Bluetooth’s 100mW. However, Dr. Bob Iannucci, Senior Vice President and

Technology Advisor at Nokia, claims that Wibree is “up to 10 times more energy efficient

than Bluetooth”, putting Wibree around 10mW. Zigbee is designed to “run for six months to

two years on just two AA batteries”. This results from its ability to lock into a transmission

time slot and sleep in between. Bluetooth, however, must stay awake for the convenience of

quick response time, which results in battery life on the order of days. This led to Wibreeʼs

design goal of 1-2 years on a single battery.

4.2.4 Range

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Both Bluetooth and Wibree are designed to operate within a 10m range, though Bluetooth 2.1

now states a maximum range of 30m. Zigbee, being designed to enable “home and industry

automation”, allows a maximum range of 75m.

4.2.5 Data Rate

Wibree has caught up to Bluetooth’s original data rate at 1Mbps, while Bluetooth has

proceeded to reach maximum rates of 3Mbps. Zigbee intentionally lags far behind these

numbers, sacrificing data rates for power savings, and so transmits only 20-250Kbps.

4.2.6 Component Cost

In 2003, when Zigbee was targeting a $2 component cost, Bluetooth support cost $5 per

device. Now Bluetooth pricing has fallen to $3, while Zigbee costs $2. More importantly,

integrating Wibree into an existing Bluetooth implementation adds around 20¢, making

Wibree a much more attractive addition to Bluetooth-enabled devices than Zigbee.

4.2.7 Network Topologies

Bluetooth and Wibree operate primarily in ad hoc piconets, where a master device controls

multiple slaves. These piconets are limited to 8 devices. Zigbee has far greater flexibility in

this arena, supporting mesh and star configurations. Mesh networks offer resilience against

severed connections, as Coordinator devices can reroute traffic as needed. Star configurations

at the ends of the mesh allow clusters of Zigbee devices to interact with the outside world,

While the mesh devices focus on data transmission.

4.2.8 Security

All three technologies support state-of-the-art 128-bit encryption, and all three continue to be

scrutinized for key distribution vulnerabilities and the like.

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4.2.9 Time to Wake and Transmit

One of Zigbee’s greatest strengths over Bluetooth has been its freedom to sleep often. This

comes from its quick wake-from-sleep design. A Zigbee device “can wake up and get a

packet across a network connection in around 15 milliseconds,” while a Bluetooth device

would take 3 seconds. A Wibree device would presumably behave more like the Zigbee

device, but this remains to be seen.

Table of Feature comparisons:

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Exemplary Technology Applications

Given the above knowledge of the three wireless technologiesʼ differences, one can make

intelligent decisions about which to use in particular applications. Wibree is already being

targeted toward watches, as low-data, low-battery-drain accessories to mobile phones [8,9].

Meanwhile, industrial automation tasks—like adding lighting control to an existing building

requires the resilience of mesh networking, making ZigBee a strong choice. For applications

requiring high bit rates over short distances, like wireless stereo headphones, Bluetooth

remains the best technology of the three.

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6. APPLICATIONS

5.1 Wibree –The Marvelous World of Wireless Microdata

Wibree offers low power – as low as any of the other contenders, but it does it in a way that

sets itself apart from them. Its unique feature is that it cohabits with a Bluetooth radio in a

new generation of wireless chips. To reduce cost it uses the same radio circuitry that’s

already there for Bluetooth and squeezes in a small, complementary protocol stack. These

dual mode chips will cost at most a few cents more than today’s Bluetooth only chips. That

means Wibree will quickly achieve a high penetration in mobile phones because it is riding

on the back of an established technology. There are two important things to realize about that

symbiosis: firstly, Wibree deployment will happen quickly and happen in volume. Secondly,

it means that every Wibree enabled mobile phone becomes a ready built, wide area gateway

capable of transferring data from a peripheral Wibree device to a remote network or service.

The sheer speed and scale of Wibree deployment in mobile phones in the next few years is

the first step to its goal. It will provide the critical mass that product designers need to justify

incorporating wireless connectivity into a new generation of products. Low cost, Wibree only

chips will find their way into a whole new range of accessories, such as watches and lifestyle

devices. Dual-mode Wibree + Bluetooth chips will give added functionality to the phones

themselves, which will become usable for location specific data searching and remote

control. Most importantly, Wibree opens up a raft of new opportunities for mobile network

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operators. As each Wibree equipped handset is a mobile gateway for Wibree devices,

operators will be able to offer new services, such as health monitoring. Such services provide

a route to new revenue streams, as well as being a powerful tool for operators to increase

customer loyalty and reduce churn.

The important point to understand about Wibree is that it is going to build upon the volumes

of mobile phones. Unlike other low power standards it’s not starting from scratch, but will

ride on an industry that already sells a billion devices every year. Wibree has the goal of

enabling a multitude of products to connect to each and every one of these handsets. That

adds up to a potential that is an order of magnitude greater than mobile phone sales. Unlike

other short range standards, Wibree’s goal is not to ship mere millions, but tens of billions.

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The new markets that are enabled by Bluetooth low energy technology include but are not

limited to:

5.2 Health and Fitness - Everything from shoes and heart rate straps to weighing scales

and bicycle computers. These devices will connect with the phone and watch to allow

everybody to monitor their bodies’ performance while exercising. This segment also includes

health maintenance devices like blood oxygen meters, blood glucose meters that can raise

alarms when there are problems, or send their data to the healthcare monitoring web services

to monitor long term trends.

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5.3 Home - Everything from using your phone as a remote control for your entertainment

system to monitoring the temperature and controlling the heating and ventilation systems will

be possible with Bluetooth low energy technology. The key element in this is that the phone

can act as a remote control for all these devices.

5.4 Office -Typical wireless office devices like mice and keyboards will use Bluetooth low

energy technology to increase their battery lifetimes. Also intelligent energy use will be

enabled by enabling office buildings to monitor the presence of workers and visitors around

the building, and adapting the environment to keep them comfortable while also saving

energy and money.

5.5 Automotive - Tire pressure monitors and other remote monitoring of devices will

reduce the weight of the wiring loom within a car. Bluetooth low energy technology can also

be used to make the various controls, like rear entertainment controls, use fewer wires. This

reduction of weight can also save energy as it will take less energy to accelerate the vehicle.

5.6 Watch - The only really true wrist computer that most people will accept is the watch.

The Bluetooth low energy technology has been designed alongside watch companies so that

it meets their requirements. The watch can display caller ID information, allow the user to

accept or reject calls, all without looking at the phone. The watch can be used to control other

devices like music players to enable volume and track changes.

Bluetooth low energy technology is a next generation wireless communications specification

from the same group that created and continue to expand the original Bluetooth specification

to cover new use cases. Bluetooth low energy technology enables new classes of devices that

can only be viable when an ultra low power radio technology, interoperable profiles and

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services are combined together to create an industry wide technology platform. Bluetooth

low energy technology connects everything to anything, phones and watches, watches to

shoes, shoes to web services, and web services to the home answering the long awaited

standardization.

5.6 LOW BANDWIDTH COMPARISON

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7. MERITS AND DEMERITS

Bluetooth technology is the most successful short range wireless communications technology

incorporated into billions of devices from cellular phones, headsets and stereo headphones,

through to medical devices, portable media players and games consoles.

Bluetooth low energy technology is the next generation of wireless standard from the

Bluetooth Special Interest Group. It is a new design that has taken the best parts of the

existing Bluetooth specifications and optimized it for a new set of applications.

The core values of Bluetooth low energy technology are similar to the existing Bluetooth core

values:

6.1 Low Power – Bluetooth technology has always strived to utilize as low power as

possible. The power consumption of Bluetooth technology has improved in every

specification version, from interlaced page scanning in v1.2, faster data rates in v2.0, and

sniff sub-rating in v2.1 to be the most power efficient standard for its applications. Bluetooth

low energy technology will dramatically improve the energy efficiency when devices are

connectable and discoverable, and also enables devices to send a small quantity of data very

quickly from a disconnected state. These new low power features enable new market

segments where there is a need to transmit only small amounts of data.

6.2 Low Cost – Bluetooth technology has always been the lowest cost standard short-range

wireless technology. Not only are there no royalties or specification a patent to worry about,

but also the specification is designed around mass production using bulk CMOS technology.

Bluetooth low energy technology will further reduce these costs, by relaxing important

specification parameters, and by reducing the implementation size significantly

(approximately half the die size).

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6.3 Short Range – Bluetooth technology has never attempted to be a long-range

technology. By concentrating on short range applications, it has successfully created the first

truly adhoc technology. Any device can connect with any other device, create a temporary or

permanent relationship, and transfer data quickly and easily. Bluetooth low energy

technology enables similar ranges as Bluetooth technology; they are still fairly modest

compared with cellular radio links.

6.4 Worldwide – Bluetooth technology can be used and sold in almost every country on

the planet. Bluetooth technology therefore enables a single seamless market for wireless

devices, enabling huge mass market, rather than country or regional specifications or devices.

6.5 Robust – Bluetooth devices just work. Having a robust radio is essential when you are

trying to gather a measurement from a sensor, or controlling something. Bluetooth technology

has learnt that being robust is what the consumers demand, and it is therefore something that

people now take for granted. Bluetooth low energy technology has not compromised anything

for robustness.

Bluetooth low energy technology is a new specification; it is not a small additional feature

within Bluetooth technology. This new specification has been designed by a team of

experienced wireless experts, who have extensive experience of both Bluetooth solutions as

well as proprietary radio systems. This combination enables a completely new generation of

wireless standard that can build interoperable products.

The new specification has a number of features that make it very attractive to a wide variety

of markets. This includes:

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6.6 Number of devices - The number of devices that can be active within a Bluetooth

low energy network has been significantly increased to many thousands. The network

topology has been kept as simple as possible to reduce the cost of each individual part, while

allowing more complex star-bus networks to route information around multiple

piconets (ad hoc network of one master and seven slaves).

6.7 Web Service Integration - the ability for small Bluetooth low energy wireless

devices to send a small quantity of data to a web service is vital for a large number of use

cases. This enables weighing scales to automatically send data to your weight loss website

(via the mobile phone), allowing you to check on your progress over time, using the best

possible user interface.

6.8 Fast Connections – the time it takes to make a connection, and send some data is

very important to reduce battery life. A target of 3 ms was set, and has been met by Bluetooth

low energy technology. This means that a device can wake up, connect and send some

application data, and then disconnect again within 3 ms. This uses the lowest amount of

energy, while also having the fastest possible transmission of event based data.

6.9 Interoperable Sensors – a consumer electronics based specification will always

favour interoperability over proprietary solutions. The profiles that have been created for

health and fitness, medical and automation markets enable the creation of fully interoperable

devices. This means that if you buy a pair of weighing scales, or a Bluetooth low energy

enabled heart rate strap, they will always interoperate with devices, regardless of the

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manufacturer of the various devices. This interoperability is tested via the unique Bluetooth

qualification program.

DEMERITS

 Data transmission is very slow, i.e. only 1Megabit per second

 Cannot be used in high bandwidth required applications

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8. FUTURE SCOPE

If integrated Wibree devices can be released soon, the combined momentum with the

upcoming Bluetooth 3.0 may prove to be a devastating blow to ZigBee, as mesh networking

will be left as its only clear selling point over Wibree. Meanwhile, Bluetooth is growing from

a single specification to a whole family of WPAN technologies. This is all good news to the

embedded systems designer, who will continue to be offered more and faster technologies for

wireless communication.

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9.CONCLUSION

Taking all of these factors together, Wibree has the potential to transform consumer devices.

It will solve the technology and monitoring issues that are currently hindering the adoption of

wireless healthcare services and enable a whole new generation of lifestyle, monitoring and

safety products. By making the mobile handset the gateway, it brings the network operators

into the equation. And they have the resources to aggregate and enable service provision.

Today Wibree is a Nokia solution. However, it is being supported by the major Bluetooth

chip vendors including Cambridge Silicon Radio and Broadcom. That means it will reside

within the chips in almost every brand of handset. It is unlikely that other phone vendors will

not take advantage of its presence, not least because it offers the network operators an

additional revenue stream. Its presence will make it very difficult for any other short range,

low power wireless technology to gain traction in the handset, ensuring that Wibree is placed

to own the wireless healthcare market.

It may not become the accepted acronym, but Wibree will enable C2M - “Consumer to

Machine” or “Consumer to Middleware” applications at a price point that makes them mass

market. M2M is only just beginning to deliver against its promises. Wibree may result in

C2M delivering an even larger promise in a shorter timescale.

As the First announcement about Wibree was only made in October 2006, and few details

have been defined, it will take some time for the work to be completed. Wibree forum merges

with the Bluetooth SIG and Wibree becomes part of the Bluetooth specification as an ultra

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low power Bluetooth technology. Yet despite this it is anticipated that the first release of the

specification will be available by the end of second quarter of 2007 or in the first quarter of

2008 and devices late in the year. It will be interesting to see how Wibree is accepted by the

market and whether it takes off in the way Nokia hopes.

The privacy solution and the confidentiality mechanism interact in ways that are beneficial

for overall security as well as for efficiency. The use of encryption with diversified (128-bit)

keys will confirm the identity of the initiator as well as the target, even if the privacy

mechanism gives a false positive due to short address identifiers. The randomness present in

the private addresses is also fed into the contributory session key generation, saving some of

the transmission need for random initialization data.

A complete controller reference implementation in ANSI-C of the privacy-related functions

in Wibree including key management, identity resolution and diversifier hiding, compiles to

well under 1kB of code without assembler optimisation, and needs only 60 bytes of RAM

to operate. As the AES block and random source are shared with the encryption service, the

functional over head of the privacy solution is very small. Still, these simple mechanisms

support most PAN use cases, more or less eliminate the threat of address-tracking PAN

device clusters, and provide a benchmark on which privacy aware protocols and applications

can be run.

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10. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Reference links:

[1] http://www.ieee802.org/15/pub/2001/Jul01/

Original proposals to the IEEE 802.15.4 working group. The most interesting

documents reflecting the genesis of Wibree are:

01230r1P802-15_TG4-Nokia-MAC-Proposal1.ppt

01231r1P802-15_TG4-Nokia-PHY-Proposal1.ppt

[2] http://www.isa.org/MSTemplate.cfm?MicrositeID=1134&CommitteeID=6891

ISA Working group SP100 – Wireless Systems for Automation

[3] http://www.wibree.com

Official Wibree website

[4] http://www.ezurio.com/dl/open/?id=19

Understanding Range – a white paper from EZURiO explaining wireless range

[5] http://www.iet.tv/channels/news/index.html

2006 IET Presidential Address by Sir Robin Saxby

[6]http://www.palowireless.com/wireless/wibree.asp

[7]http://www.prnewsnow.com/Public_Release/Managed_Care_And_HMO/133356.html

[8] Mike Foley, "The new wireless frontier," http://www.bluetooth.com/NR/rdonlyres/

9A00E8AB-1337-40FF-A4A5-4092D9E17121/0/

BluetoothLowEnergyTechnology_MikeFoley_TheNewWirelessFrontier.pdf

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[9] Bluetooth.com, "Market potential for Bluetooth low energy technology,"

http://www.bluetooth.com/NR/rdonlyres/30CC41D0-5270-41ED-BE9F-

C6608AE0C9DD/0/

BluetoothLowEnergyTechnology_MarketPotential.pdf

[10] Bluetooth.com, "Technical Comparison,"

http://www.bluetooth.com/Bluetooth/Technology/

Works/Compare/Technical/

[11] Jackson, Donny, "More than a Flash in the Pan,"

http://urgentcomm.com/mag/radio_flash_pan/

[12] Smith, Brad, "Bluetooth Umbrella Covers Low-Power Wibree,"

http://www.wirelessweek.com/article.aspx?id=149088

[13] Wikipedia, “Wibree,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wibree

[14] Nordic Semi, “nRF24LE1,” http://www.nordicsemi.com/files/Product/data_sheet/

nRF24LE1_Preliminary_Product_Specification_v1.1.pdf

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