Bluetooth Chip

Description

The following is the classification and analysis of Bluetooth series chips and related technologies, covering application scenarios such as BLE Beacon, SIG Mesh, BT-Voice and Smart-STB:

1. Classification of Bluetooth chips

Bluetooth chips can be classified by protocol stack and function:

l Classic Bluetooth (BT/BDR/EDR) : Supports audio transfer (such as headphones), file transfer, etc., high power consumption.

l Low Energy Bluetooth (BLE/Bluetooth Smart) : Low energy, intermittent data transfer for IoT devices.

l Dual-mode Bluetooth (BT+BLE) : Supports both classic and low energy modes, suitable for smart homes, wearables, etc.

2. BLE Beacon

Features: Based on the BLE broadcast protocol, enable location services (indoor navigation), asset tracking, scenario marketing.

Chip solution:

l Low power consumption, supports Eddystone/iBeacon protocol.

l Long broadcast distance.

Features:

l No pairing required, one-way broadcast data (UUID, Major/Minor).

l Typical applications: shopping mall guide, airport boarding gate alert.

3. SIG Mesh

Features: Official Bluetooth Mesh networking protocol, supports multi-node relay, large-scale IoT networks (such as smart lighting, building automation).

Chip solution

l Full protocol stack support.

l Low-power Mesh nodes.

Features:

l Self-organizing network, multi-hop transport, supports 1000+ nodes.

l It compets with Zigbee 3.0 but is more compatible with mobile phones based on the BLE ecosystem.

4 BT-Voice (Bluetooth audio)

Features: Classic Bluetooth Audio transmission, supporting HFP/A2DP/LE Audio (LC3 encoding).

Chip solution:

l Supports LE Audio and active noise cancellation (ANC).

l Domestic TWS earphone solution.

l Low-cost smart speaker chips.

Trends:

l LE Audio: A new generation of low-power audio standard, enhancing multi-device synchronization (like hearing AIDS).

5. Smart-stb (Smart set-top box)

Functions: Connect remote controls, speakers, headphones and other peripherals via Bluetooth.

Chip demand:

l Dual-mode Bluetooth: BT (audio remote control) + BLE (distribution network, Beacon advertising).

l Typical solution:

¢ Integrate BT 5.0 for 4K set-top boxes.

¢ Voice remote control is supported.