Digital key solutions
RSSI-based Bluetooth® LE digital key solutions have existed for some time. Both Bluetooth® LE-enabled fobs and phone-as-key solutions can be used to lock and unlock doors, gates and garages, bicycle locks, safes, cabinet, and drawer locks, among other devices. Bluetooth® Channel Sounding provides an additional layer of protection against man-in-the-middle relay attacks, removing a key area of concern when adopting Bluetooth technology for digital key and access control solutions, compared with UWB, while also providing sufficient accuracy and low enough latency for most deployment scenarios.
Today, there is strong momentum for multi-protocol access control solutions, particularly in the automotive space, with the backing of the Car Connectivity Consortium and its Digital Key Release 3.0 Specification, which combines UWB, Bluetooth® LE, and NFC. Similarly, the unveiling of Aliro from the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) in 2023 aims to standardize the communication protocol between access readers and user devices such as smartphones, wearables, and other devices to provide a more convenient and consistent experience for access control. Meanwhile, other organizations, such as the Intelligent Connected Car Open Alliance (ICCOA) and Intelligent Connected Car Ecosystem Alliance (ICCE) in China, are also investigating a similar approach to the CCC, combining UWB, Bluetooth® LE, and NFC technology.
However, given that UWB is not yet a ubiquitous technology and the fact that it will come at additional cost and complexity, many in the industry believe that OEMs, outside of the high-end and premium tiers of the market, will view Bluetooth® Channel Sounding as a viable, cost-effective solution for automotive, home, and building access, taking advantage of the ubiquity of Bluetooth® LE technology in smartphones and other devices. Therefore, Bluetooth® Channel Sounding has the potential to help scale up digital key and phone-as-key deployments across automotive, home, enterprise, and industrial access control use cases.
In addition to standalone Bluetooth® Channel Sounding digital-key solutions, Bluetooth® Channel Sounding will also likely have a complementary role to play with UWB technology, with access control solutions potentially leveraging Bluetooth® Channel Sounding to determine distance when the user is further away, and hand over to UWB for unlocking and in-cabin use cases. Here, the use of Bluetooth® Channel Sounding could further reduce the power consumption of access control solutions that utilize UWB.
Asset tracking
Bluetooth® Channel Sounding can bring significant performance and security enhancements to indoor asset-tracking applications while also enabling some reduced complexity deployments when compared with previous solutions. In enterprise environments, such as hospitals, personnel can leverage smartphones to track high-value equipment more readily, improving productivity and preventing the loss of critical assets.
In retail environments, high-value equipment can be equipped with dedicated Bluetooth® Channel Sounding tags and send alerts when they are moved out of specified areas. In warehouse environments or construction sites, personnel can track Bluetooth® Channel Sounding-enabled tools without needing to install a more complex RTLS infrastructure with multiple locators.
Other high-value assets can activate alarms if they are suddenly moved outside of their predetermined location, preventing theft. These solutions can complement more scalable asset-tracking implementations based on RSSI and AoA/AoD to help track hundreds to thousands of assets.
In addition, Bluetooth® Channel Sounding can be combined with other techniques, such as direction finding, to enable even further accuracy and security to their asset tracking platforms.
Human-interface devices (HID)
By offering centimeter-level distance measurement capabilities, a whole host of peripheral and accessory devices can now accurately determine their relative position from platform devices such as smartphones, PCs, tablets, and smart TVs. Devices such as mice, keyboards, and controllers could automatically switch between active and inactive states as they approach or are separated from the source PC. For example, when someone picks up their laptop to use it, an active wireless keyboard or mouse may turn inactive once the laptop moves from a pre-configured distance away from them. Alternatively, someone placing their game controller next to their laptop could activate it. This could help to improve the end-user experience while extending the battery life of those devices