Why Our Wearable Device Does Not Use Bluetooth (BLE) Protocol

However, applying personal BLE fitness bands, centered around smartphones, to enterprise-level scenarios where data transmission and interaction with hundreds or thousands of terminal devices is required presents many issues.

The core design of the BLE protocol is aimed at personal applications, with a single host capable of connecting to a maximum of 8 terminal devices. In enterprise applications, many scenarios may require interaction with dozens or hundreds of mobile terminals every second for data transmission.

If BLE needs to achieve more device interactions, it must first connect a batch of devices, complete data transmission, then disconnect from the previous devices, and search for new devices to connect, repeating this process. The cost of each master-slave device connection and disconnection in BLE is extremely high, taking at least several seconds. During this time, many devices may have already left the signal coverage area of the Bluetooth gateway.

The connection process of terminal devices based on BLE protocol with the central device (smartphone) only takes seconds, after which data transmission starts. Due to the complexity of the BLE protocol itself, the actual data transmission rate is extremely low. Normally, it takes several seconds for terminal devices (fitness bands) to generate data and transmit it to the platform.

Due to the inefficiency of data transmission, complete data transmission to the platform requires multiple connections and interactions. In the context of mobile fitness bands in campus scenarios, it is challenging to ensure the timeliness and completeness of data.

Although BLE is called a low-energy Bluetooth protocol, it is only in comparison to traditional Bluetooth communication protocols. In enterprise-level scenarios, wearable devices often require high-frequency usage and large-scale data transmission and interaction.

Normal devices may achieve weeks or even months of battery life, but even charging every few months or replacing batteries poses a significant workload for maintenance personnel managing large quantities of devices.

How to truly meet enterprise-level applications, especially in scenarios such as campuses and healthcare, where large quantities of mobile devices need to ensure high concurrency and high-speed stable transmission while also achieving several years of battery life. Based on this need, and the various issues encountered during the actual application of BLE, MiYue Technology has spent over four years developing the OnLE protocol, an on-demand low-power transmission protocol.

The OnLE protocol not only achieves high concurrency, low power consumption, and high responsiveness but also provides complete underlying support and optimization for functions such as data uplink, downlink interaction, information broadcasting, and platform remote upgrades in enterprise applications.

Regarding the low power characteristics of the protocol, the OnLE protocol is based on a complete Internet of Things protocol mindset, fully utilizing on-demand transmission.

When data needs to be transmitted, terminal devices such as fitness bands quickly establish a connection with the central base station, and after data transmission is complete, they quickly disconnect. The entire process from establishing the connection, transmitting data, to disconnecting takes milliseconds.

When there is no data interaction needed, terminal devices such as fitness bands completely shut down their wireless modules.

Through this on-demand transmission design, terminal devices such as fitness bands can achieve several years of battery life, significantly reducing maintenance costs.

In terms of concurrency characteristics, BLE, being based on synchronous connection transmission mechanisms, requires each data transmission to undergo connection, transmission, and protocol maintenance processes, each taking several seconds. This greatly occupies wireless bandwidth, affecting data validity and significantly reducing device concurrency, allowing only 8 devices to interact at a time.

The OnLE protocol requires only milliseconds for each data transmission, allowing hundreds of terminal devices such as fitness bands to interact with the central base station every second.

In actual applications, corresponding Bluetooth base stations are equipped for data interaction with fitness bands and various scenario-based terminals. However, Bluetooth base stations consume a lot of power and must be powered, making installation and deployment very challenging.

Moreover, Bluetooth base stations based on Bluetooth protocol not only have poor concurrency performance but also primarily serve as data collection for terminal devices such as fitness bands, and cannot efficiently implement downlink pathways to configure, control, manage, and upgrade terminal devices such as fitness bands, making post-use maintenance very difficult.

In contrast, the MiYue base station using the OnLE protocol, due to its ultra-low power consumption, can be powered by batteries, eliminating the need for wired connections, allowing for easy installation, with the same base station device taking only five minutes to set up.

Additionally, due to the excellent support for downlink data pathways provided by the OnLE protocol, the IoT platform based on the MiYue base station can easily configure, manage, and remotely upgrade various terminal devices such as fitness bands. These advantages greatly reduce time and labor costs in the later stages of device usage and maintenance.