The ability of different electronic devices to communicate wirelessly is an important feature for users and operators. To date the extent to which wireless technology can be applied to certain products has been restricted by power consumption, or the costs of adding wireless functionality.

Bluetooth low energy (formally known as Ultra Low Power Bluetooth, and before that as Wibree) and Zigbee are now being aimed squarely at such applications. Both consume minute amounts of power, and both potentially allow a range of applications to interact and share data wirelessly.

Zigbee is being promoted as being suitable for use in meter reading, utilising the technology’s large mesh network capabilities. Bluetooth low energy is aimed more at health or consumer items, the newly dubbed fashion area network. In the future it’s hard to imagine Zigbee and Bluetooth low energy not crossing paths on some applications.

Both Zigbee and Bluetooth low energy share similar aspects: both offer low power, high speed connections, and a single cell battery could last up to ten years running Bluetooth low energy or Zigbee. However, when end-products employ Zigbee’s mesh networking, the power consumed is much greater than that required by Bluetooth low energy.

To run a mesh network, devices need to be permanently ready to receive information and send it on; with Bluetooth the device is only on while sending or receiving information. Bluetooth low energy has improved on the existing Bluetooth technology and standards, opening wireless connectivity up to devices that would previously have been considered too expensive and impractical.

By incorporating Bluetooth low energy onto an existing Bluetooth chip, manufacturers can add wireless connectivity for next to no additional cost, and without requiring any extra PCB space, a key constraint in hand held portable devices.

Zigbee has always targeted more niche markets, however Bluetooth low energy is starting to be used in some of these applications.

The mobile phone is becoming a central hub for every aspect of people’s lives. Smartphones already support email and internet access, sharing information with PCs, satellite navigation, and even for receiving information in restaurants and stations. If Bluetooth low energy is integrated into televisions, lights, central heating thermostats, heart rate monitors, microwaves, even running shoes, as predicted by the Bluetooth SIG, then people will be able to coordinate all of these applications through a single ‘remote control’: their mobile phone.

Robin Heydon is standards architect at CSR