Bluetooth is a wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances (using short-wavelength UHF radio waves in the ISM band from 2.4 to 2.485 GHz) from fixed and mobile devices and building personal area networks (PANs). Bluetooth low energy (BLE), previously known as Wibree™, is a subset of Bluetooth v4.0 with an entirely new protocol stack for rapid build-up of simple links. As an alternative to the Bluetooth standard protocols that were introduced in Bluetooth v1.0 to v3.0, it aims at very low power applications running off a coin cell. Bluetooth or BLE is an open standard technology. BLE is a low power consumption wireless communication technology.
Bluetooth mesh technology is a new protocol built on BLE. It connects a plurality of BLE devices using a mesh topology to form a network where each node in the network is connected to every other node around it. Each device can communicate with each other and exchange data. CSR has announced its Bluetooth mesh technology. Mesh technology is often used to connect all devices together to transfer information.
Bluetooth beacon technology is also a new protocol built on BLE. It consists of one or more Bluetooth beacons that transmit their own unique identification numbers to the local area. A receiving device with suitable software may then look up the beacons and perform various functions, such as notifying a user. Receiving devices can also connect to the beacons to retrieve values from beacon's GATT (generic attribute profile) service. Apple has announced its version of beacon technology called iBeacon. Beacon is often used to provide location information to a receiving device.