What is Bluetooth range?

Previously, when it comes to bluetooth technology for location , the first response is that the bluetooth range is too short with limited applications. Therefore, some leading companies in this industry make an effort to develop from the bluetooth classic version to bluetooth 5.0 to extend the range with the same power, the max range based on Bluetooth 5.0 can be up to over 500 meters at open space ( 1640ft)

Nowadays , As the market demands change from different use cases, it trends to pursue the accurate positioning using BLE technology , when the Bluetooth 5.1 hits the market this year, it enhances location services with a direction finding feature to make the location accuracy less than 1 meter.

To put it simply , Blueooth range can be more than a kilometer, less than a meter.

Bluetooth SIG came up with the bluetooth Estimator to calculate the expected range between two Bluetooth devices, You can view more details from this link: https://www.bluetooth.com/bluetooth-technology/range/

They mentioned that there are some key factors that influence the effective range of a reliable Bluetooth connection. The range will vary from the values or situation of below parameters.

1.Radio Spectrum
2.PHY (The physical layer)
3.Receiver sensitivity
4.Transmit power
5.Antenna Gain
6.Pass Loss

In our real situation, we come across some clients every now and then who asked the actual range of our bluetooth beacons or sensor tags. The only answer that we can give is the max range under ideal condition , which means that range is tested at open space without any obstacles, the real available range is determined by the physical environment in consideration of above factors. Knowing the bluetooth Estimator to calculate the expected range will be of help to shorten the development time on a project.