While making technology decisions for the internet of things, many a time, the question arises, that should we not use the existing wi-fi infrastructure of IoT projects? Given below is a list of differences that will give you a holistic perspective on what technology to choose and why. We have built this based on the criteria of reliability, range, data rate, costs of operation and future of the technology to help with building a TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)

2. BRIEF INTRODUCTION
•Bluetooth Core Specification version
4.0 is released, introducing Blue-
tooth Low Energy (BLE), more
commonly known as Bluetooth
Smart.
•Bluetooth Smart was designed
specifically to address the needs of
a new generation of smart devices,
many of which are battery-powered
and thus require fast connection
times and efficient power
management to reduce unnecessary
energy consumption.
•The Wi-Fi technology is based on
the family of wireless networking
standards IEEE 802.11X
•According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, the
standard carries roughly a half of
all Internet traffic for billions of
users.
•Widely used in private homes,
offices and public spaces the world
over, Wi-Fi might seem to be
perfectly positioned to take the
early IoT market by storm.
BlueTooth Wi-Fi

3. Market Positioning - This refers to the consumer's perception of technology in relation to competing technologies. Also, refers to
how widely is the technology used across homes, offices and public spaces, the world over.
MARKET POSITIONING
•BLE (Bluetooth low energy)
market was valued $4.5 billion in
the year 2017
•The various end-users assessed
include health care, sports and
fitness, electronic devices,
automotive, asset tracking and
proximity marketing, consumer
electronics, industrial automation,
wearable electronics.
•We all use Wi-Fi in our homes,
offices, you find them available in
public places like shopping malls
etc.
•It may be an important element in
the implementation of IoT projects
but not a contender for the hottest
connectivity solutions of the
Internet of Things.
BlueTooth Wi-Fi

4. TOPOLOGY
•Bluetooth Low Energy, also supports
multiple network topologies,
including point-to-point, broadcast
and mesh networking.
•With mesh networking topology,
even if one node or relay or
gateway fails, the self-healing
mechanism will find another route
to deliver the message. This means
that there is no single point of
failure.
•The Wi-Fi network uses a star topology
•Devices can be added and removed
from the network without any
disruption to the network
•But there is a major flaw, Once the
hub fails, the entire network becomes
inoperable as individual nodes cannot
communicate with each other.
Topology - is the pattern in which the nodes or things connect with each other. There are four principal topologies used in
networks: bus, ring, star and mesh. Both technologies use 2.4 Ghz band and have a short range, that is work on short distances.
BlueTooth Wi-Fi

5. Power Consumption - refers to the electrical energy per unit time, supplied to operate something. With just a coin battery, these
devices are expected to be running for extended periods of time.
POWER CONSUMPTION
•The secret to its energy performance
is the fact that the protocol has been
optimized to transport very small
data packets at longer intervals.
•The power consumption is very low
as the low energy IoT devices to
wake up from sleep for only one
millisecond and then go back to
sleep.
•As Wi-Fi is a high-bandwidth
communication standard, the power
requirements are very high.
•So, building a battery-powered Wi-Fi
device that can run for a reasonable
amount of time with a decent
performance seems almost
impossible.
BlueTooth Wi-Fi

6. Data Rate - is a term to denote the transmission speed, or the number of bits per second transferred over a radio signal. In the IoT
world the data rate commands the network saturation, given that 2.4 Ghz has a high demand
DATA RATE
•At 1 Mbps Bluetooth, today has by
far the best Data transfer rate
against 801.11ac
•At a higher data rate, the packets
can reach the destination faster
and help with freeing up radio
waves and as a result, there are
minimal packet collisions and
lower network saturation
•A Wi-Fi device has the capability of
transferring hundreds of megabits
per second.
•Though these numbers look
impressive, it is an overkill for an
IoT application like Asset Tracking
or Warehouse Pallet Tracking for
instance, where instead of data-
heavy content, the asset tags or
beacons broadcast simple
commands and tiny bits of
information
BlueTooth Wi-Fi

7. Range - is defined as the physical distance of wireless (over the air) communication between two devices. The idea is for the
sensor data to reach it’s destination either on its own or using range extenders where a decision can be taken.
RANGE
•In a line of sight, the bluetooth
radio signals can be received by a
receiver of up to 500 meters, but
with bluetooth mesh, this range
can be easily extended to much
more using relay nodes.
•Using a simple TTL (Time to Live)
variable, the system architect can
decide how many hops a message
could take to reach the
destination.
•WWith the 802.11n and other
flavours of Wi-Fi, the range is
pretty decent, and the range can
be extended by using signal
extenders and additional access
points.
•Extending the range by adding
additional hubs, works, but when
one of the hubs malfunctions, the
entire network becomes inoperable
and the sensor data cannot be sent
to the destination
BlueTooth Wi-Fi

8. Compatibility with Smart Phones - is the ability of the wireless protocol to communicate natively with a smartphone or any
handheld device and help with building, cofiguring and controlling network of connected devices
COMPATIBILITY WITH SMART PHONES
•The fact that bluetooth natively
communicates with the
smartphone app, the number of
possibilities for improving user
experience has increased
multifold.
•Only a smartphone app is required
to talk to bluetooth devices
directly and that is all that is
required to build, configure and
control a network of connected
bluetooth devices.
•The fact that it requires the
networks, central access point to
communicated and does not
communicate directly, makes Wi-Fi
inefficient for IoT devices.
•Unlike Bluetooth where the setup
of IoT devices can be done directly
using an app, the same cannot be
done using Wi-Fi as the smart
devices do not talk to smartphones
natively and they first need to get
on the same network.
BlueTooth Wi-Fi

9. Onboarding - refers to the speed and convenience with which a new device can be added to the wireless network without the
need to reconfigure the network and use special configurations setup
ONBOARDING
•Bluetooth provides the end-user
with what could be called a
Remote Display and a Remote
Keyboard for each smart device,
no matter how small or simple it
is.
•One of the major benefits
resulting from this is the
simplicity of the commissioning
and provisioning process.
•A Wi-Fi smart device would need to
know the network password to get
on the network and you need the
smartphone to provide it with the
details, but then you need the
smartphone to also be a part of the
network.
•This makes things a bit tricky as
there is no application layer on the
802.11xx protocol.
BlueTooth Wi-Fi

10. Interoperability - is a characteristic of a product or system, whose interfaces are completely understood, to work with other
products or systems, at present or in the future, in either implementation or access, without any restrictions
INTEROPERABILITY
•Bluetooth mesh specification is
perfectly poised for the era of
interoperability. The idea of
cross-vendor compatibility of
smart devices is now a reality.
•Various bluetooth profiles have
been introduced through an
impressive library of mesh models
that help devices from various
manufacturers of sensors and
smartphones to participate in the
network.
•A Wi-Fi smart device would need to
know the network password to get
on the network and you need the
smartphone to provide it with the
details, but then you need the
smartphone to also be a part of the
network.
•This makes things a bit tricky as
there is no application layer on the
802.11xx protocol.
BlueTooth Wi-Fi

11. Future Developments - is the trajectory of the technology life cycle. How strong is the community supporting the technology will
define how much the adoption will be trusted.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
•With use cases in Industry 4.0,
Smart Homes etc. BLE
and Bluetooth mesh networking
specifications, is all set to become
the go-to technology for low-
bandwidth communications in the
IoT sector.
•The bluetooth SIG is perfectly
placed to ensure a strong future
for bluetooth as through this
comparison we have seen that no
other wireless technology has ever
been so deep and comprehensive
•Energy Efficiency, cost, resource
heaviness, speed of onboarding and
other form factor constraints have
been the major challenges to use
Wi-Fi for IoT deployments.
•The Wi-FiAlliance is aware of these
shortcomings and has made efforts
by introducing standards like the
802.11c and 802.11an with a
promise to reduce the challenges
that legacy 802.11 technologies
struggle within in the resource-
scarce IoT space. When, is a
question.
BlueTooth Wi-Fi

12. Thank You
BlueTooth vs Wi-Fi comparison Details
For enquiries please write to sales@quicsolv.com