High-level intro to Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE or Bluetooth Smart). This talk was given at Boulder iOS Meetup in 2016.

1. Bluetooth Low-energy
Justin Bergen
@thenighttrader / five3apps.com

2. About Me
• Started Mac development in 2009
• iOS development since 2012
• Current do iOS consulting under Five3 Apps

3. Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE)
• Low energy and wireless
• Bluetooth 4.0 (subset)
• Sometimes known as Bluetooth Smart
• Supported by iOS 5+ (“usable” 7+)
• CoreBluetooth
• Does not require MFI certification!

4. Why BLE?
• Energy efficient
- Can run on a coin cell battery for months
• Responsive
- Able to easily handle 30ms update interval (33fps)
• Not a good fit for high bandwidth needs

5. How BLE Works
• Generic Access Profile (GAP)
- Known as “advertising”
- Limited to 31 bytes of data,
plus another 31 bytes of
scan response data
- This is how iBeacon works

6. How BLE Works
• Generic Attribute Profile
(GATT)
- Connected, 1:1
communication
- Advertising stops
- Central initiates data
requests

7. How BLE Works
• Generic Attribute Profile
(GATT)
- Profile (logical)
- Services
- Characteristics