Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy

Welcome to our April 2020 blog update where this month I want to focus on Bluetooth (BT) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).

You may see a lot of talk about BLE. I thought I’d write a little blog on the differences between Bluetooth (BT) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).

A lot of people think they are the same and related. Well they kinda are, but distant cousins – not brothers. They have a common heritage, but they have several important distinctions.

BT was created in the mid to late 1990s, from work done at Ericsson in the years previous. It was created to run over short distances and be used for things like mice and keyboards. It was designed to replace small cable runs, over short distances.

Today, in addition to mice and keyboards, you most probably have experienced in your headphones, your microphone (probably for your phone, embedded into an earpiece), or maybe even in your car.

BT breaks down into two main types of devices: BT Classic (also known as BR/EDR) and BLE.

BLE was introduced in BT v4.0 (2010) and lives up to its name – low energy/power. Both these types cannot interoperate, even though they are both technically BT, and operate in the same 2.4GHz (2.400 – 2.4835GHz) frequency. A device wishing to operate both protocols needs to run both protocols (this is sometimes called a Dual Mode device).

You may see BLE sometimes referred to as BT Smart. BLE is becoming more popular, especially because of its lower power use, and therefore longer battery life. BT was designed, and intended, for continuous data streaming, where BLE was designed for short burst data transmission. BT is used for audio streaming, and file transfers. BLE tends to be used for data transmission, and/or control with low-bandwidth applications.

Technical Details (BT v5.0 – 2016)

<<Click image to enlarge>>

BLE versions are backwards-compatible.

There you go! Lots of information on BLE, so now you can impress people at parties, right? Or maybe…?

See you next time!

===

*Speed is the speed of the PHY layer, application throughput tends to be around 70% of the stated “speed”.

**2Mbps speed involved use of new hardware. It is possible older equipment may not support this.

*** BT5.0

===

About NC-Expert

NC-Expert is a privately-held California corporation and is well established within the Wireless, Security, and Collaboration industry certification training, courseware development, and consulting markets.

Led by its Founder and CEO, Rie Vainstein, NC-Expert has won numerous private contracts with Fortune level companies around the world. These customers have depended on NC-Expert to train, advise, and mentor their staff.

So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

The post Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy appeared first on NC Expert.

NC-Expert Blog

Wi-Fi Myth Series - Myth #14: One Speed Test Tells You Everything

By Rie Morgan • September 16, 2026
We’ve all seen it happen: someone reports that the Wi-Fi is slow. A speed test is launched. The little needle races across the screen and, a few seconds later, an impressive number appears. “See? 600 Mbps. The Wi-Fi is fine.” Case closed. Except, of course, it isn’t. A speed test can be useful. It can tell you something about the performance experienced by a device at a particular location, at a particular moment, using a particular test server and network path. What it cannot do is provide a complete diagnosis of Wi-Fi health. That distinction matters because throughput is only one part of the user experience.

Wi-Fi Myth Series - Myth #13: Mesh is ALWAYS the Best Solution

By Rie Morgan • September 10, 2026
Mesh Wi-Fi has developed quite the reputation: Need coverage in the far end of the building? Mesh. Can’t get Ethernet to an access point? Mesh. Dead spot upstairs? Mesh. Need Wi-Fi in the warehouse, courtyard, annex, garage, loading dock, or that mysterious conference room where RF signals apparently go to die? Mesh. And there’s a reason for the enthusiasm. Mesh networking can be extremely useful: it can extend connectivity into places where running cable is difficult, expensive, disruptive, or simply impossible. Modern mesh systems can dynamically select paths, recover from connectivity changes, and provide remarkably capable wireless backhaul... but that doesn’t mean mesh is automatically the best architecture. Sometimes the best mesh network is the one you don’t build!

Wi-Fi Myth Series - Myth #12: Auto Channel Selection ALWAYS Knows Best

By Rie Morgan • August 28, 2026
Automatic Channel Selection sounds like one of those features we should simply be able to trust: the APs monitor the RF environment, the Controller gathers data, an Algorithm considers interference, utilization, neighboring APs, channel availability, and other metrics, then Radio Resource Management (RRM) does its “thing” and selects the best channels. Wonderful! One less problem for the wireless engineer to worry about... except RF rarely cooperates with anything quite that neatly! Modern RRM systems are remarkably capable, and automatic channel selection can dramatically simplify the management of large wireless environments, but an algorithm can only make decisions based on the information it collects, the parameters it has been given, and the objectives it has been designed to optimize. That makes automation a powerful engineering tool. It does not make it the engineer.