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Bluetooth is now entering into its sixth era, with this generation making it easier to find lost items with better distance awareness and offering a solution to safety concerns following the trend of keyless cars.
On Tuesday (September 3) the Bluetooth Special Interest Group released the new version of the specification, detailing more advanced features and enhancements to what is already being used.
This protocol was launched in 1999 and makes wireless communication between devices possible. It’s how headphones connect to phones, along with wearable technology and other devices.
One of the most notable changes is the introduction of ‘Channel Sounding’ which aims to bring a marked difference when it comes to locating items that have been lost. It does so through “true distance awareness,” with the company saying this will greatly improve the “user experience of ‘Find My’ solutions.
It also aims to address the potential safety concerns many have with the adoption of keyless cars and hotel rooms, as “only authorized users within a specified range can unlock doors or access secure areas.
“And, by infusing billions of everyday devices with true distance awareness, Bluetooth Channel Sounding unlocks a world of possibilities for developers, freeing them to imagine and create innovative experiences that will continue to enhance our connection with our devices, one another, and the world around us.”
What new features does Bluetooth 6 have?
Aside from its ‘Channel Sounding,’ other elements have been added like ‘Decision-Based Advertising Filtering.’ This involves a filter system that allows “a scanning device to use the content of a packet received on a primary advertising channel to decide if it should scan for related packets on the secondary channels…”
The ‘Monitoring Advertisers’ feature has been focused on too which means a host component of an observer device can instruct a Bluetooth LE controller to filter duplicate advertising packets.
A new framing mode that reduces latency has been worked on, named the ‘ISOAL Enhancement’ as well as an advancement to the frame space.
When it comes to the devices exchanging information about the link-layer features that they each support, the capability to do so has been enhanced to support a larger number of features with the ‘LL Extended Feature Set.
Bluetooth Core Specification version 6.0 is available now to developers.
