Can BTLE devices be discoverable by BT2.0 devices? If so, do BTLE devices consume low power during inquiry scan? How much power do they consume for that operation?
No - BTLE and BT Classic (2.0) cannot talk to each other.
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How many no of BLE devices can be paired with other BLE devices simultaneously?
I understand Bluetooth headsets working on BLE4.2> simultaneously allow 2 connections at the same time?
How is it with the BLE?
There are no restrictions in the standard. So it will be implementation specific.
i want to know the fundamental difference between BLE and Classic Bluetooth and why exactly is BLE low power?
There are quite a few differences between Bluetooth Classic and Bluetooth Low Energy including:
Classic Bluetooth operates on 79 frequency channels, whereas BLE uses only 40.
Classic Bluetooth has a higher throughput than BLE, although the gap is becoming narrower with newer versions of BLE.
A classic Bluetooth device can only be connected to 7 other devices, there is no theoretical maximum to BLE.
The two use different mechanisms for broadcasting/connection. Classic only devices cannot find or connect to BLE only devices and vice versa.
The list goes on beyond the above to the point that it is more common to assume that they are two protocols only sharing a few technical similarities and the same standardisation body (The Bluetooth SIG).
As to what makes BLE low power, this lies in the duty cycle of the protocol. BLE devices sleep for most of the time they are not in operation, and only wake up to send bursts of data and then go back to sleep. Of course this depends on the use case; if an application continuously sends BLE data then there will be fewer sleep intervals and therefore the power consumption will match that of classic Bluetooth.
For more references regarding this question, please see the list below:
4 Key Differences between Classic Bluetooth and BLE
The difference between Classic Bluetooth and BLE
Bluetooth vs Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
Bluetooth vs BLE
Can a Bluetooth LE powered device discover a classic Bluetooth device and vice-versa?
I hope this helps.
What I want to ask is - Will a BLE device be able to answer calls, play music, etc... or that Bluetooth 4.0 is intended for a kind of NFC alternative?
Bluetooth Low Energy is part of the Bluetooth 4.0 specification. Bluetooth 4.0 includes Classic Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy and Bluetooth High Speed.
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) uses a different radio protocol with fewer, wider channels and a lower transmission rate and power than Bluetooth Classic (although it uses the same frequencies) and most importantly it implements a different set of profiles.
Classic Bluetooth has profiles such as Serial Port Profile (SPP) and Handsfree Profile (HFP) while the most commonly used profile in BLE is the Generic Attribute profile (GATT). This profile allows for the transfer of small amounts of data at relatively low speeds and is not suitable high-bandwidth time-critical applications such as audio streaming.
Dual-mode Bluetooth chipsets that support Classic Bluetooth and BLE are available although often they can only operate in one mode at a time. Many BLE chipsets are BLE only, however as it reduces cost and complexity.
The short answer is that BLE can't support the classic Bluetooth functions you described.
Bluetooth 4.0 has all backwards compatibility with it's older versions.
BLE is a form of connect using low energy technology.
BLE = Bluetooth Low energy.
They are different technologies with different proposes. BLE tend to be used in heart rate monitors, bike computers, medicinal applications and etc. Whenever the power supply is limited.
BLE intent is not for headsets and similar devices. That's why you see on phone specifications Bluetooh 4.0 + BLE (or LE). Bluetooh is a technology, BLE is a 'protocol of communication'
Can a Bluetooth device act as a beacon and simultaneously be used for other functions?
I've tried looking around, without finding a concrete answer to this question.
A beacon is a Bluetooth Low Energy device that is advertising. The BLE radio is separate from the classic radio, and since the Bluetooth specification does not restrict the operation of classic Bluetooth along side Low Energy functionality then there is no issue performing classic Bluetooth operation while the device is acting as a Beacon.
I'm wondering if Bluetooth 4.0 (low-energy) mobile phones could discover classic Bluetooth devices (3.0 and lower), and vice-versa. All I am interested in is discovering the "friendly names".
EDIT: As I have understood the replies of this post, Bluetooth 4.0 can discover classic Bluetooth devices but not the other way around. Then my follow-up question is, can a Bluetooth 4.0 device in LE mode discover classic Bluetooth devices?
The answer depends on if you mean Bluetooth v4.0 device, or BLE device, the two are not the same.
Bluetooth v4.0 = Classic Bluetooth + Bluetooth High Speed + Bluetooth Low Energy
Therefore, Bluetooth Low Energy is only a subset of Bluetooth v4.0. If your question is regarding Bluetooth v4.0 phones (generally phones are not BLE only), then the answer is Yes, Bluetooth v4.0 mobile phones can theoretically discover Bluetooth v3.0 devices and lower.
Hate to be blunt, but nope not possible (although it would be handy). 4.0 is 4.0 alone. Check out the Bluetooth Core Spec for more info
No a BLE can not discover a classic bluetooth device nor a classic bluetooth device can discover a BLE.
A device with BT V4 will discover both.
And A BT V4 will be discovered by BLE if it is advertising as BLE.
I also had same question, so I did little experiment.
I may contribute to this topic from my experiment that I did with old mobile(Nokia C5-00), New mobile(Samsung galaxy grand prime) and two bluegiga ble113 chips.
I swithched on bluetooth of all the devices and started scanning for near by devices I observed the following:
Observation1: Samsung galaxy grand prime (BT version 4 +Ble): It was showing both bluegiga ble113 chips, and Nokia C5-00 on the list.
Observation2: Nokia C5-00 (Earlier version of BT): It was showing only Samsung galaxy grand prime in the list.
Observation3: ble113: Out of the two ble113 chips one was in advertising mode and other in scanning mode at first the scanner chip was discovering only other BLE113 advertiser chip, but when I started advertising from Samsung galaxy grand prime phone using BLEBroadcast app the ble scanner chip started discovering the Samsung galaxy grand prime phone also.
Its perhaps late but just to clarify. The question in the title sounds like its asking about the interoperability of the two different Bluetooth modes, but the details of the question drift toward whether or not the mobile phone supports these two capabilities.
As far as the interoperability is concerned, as pointed out by VSingh, Classic Bluetooth discovery and Bluetooth Low Energy discovery work in opposite ways.
In classic, the endpoint [eg your Android] SEARCHING for devices TRANSMITS inquiry packets. Devices in discoverable mode, LISTEN for these packets and respond accordingly.
In Bluetooth Low energy, the endpoint [eg your Android] SEARCHING for devices LISTENS (scans) for advertisement packets. BTLE devices that are discoverable TRANSMIT these advertisement packets.
If the radio on your mobile device can do both of these things, then you can discover both classic and low energy devices.