IBeacon: Difference between revisions

Various vendors have since made iBeacon-compatible hardware transmitters&nbsp;– typically called [[Bluetooth low energy beacon|beacons]]&nbsp;– a class of [[Bluetooth Low Energy]] (BLE) devices that broadcast their identifier to nearby [[Mobile computing|portable electronic]] devices. The technology enables [[smartphone]]s, [[computer tablet|tablet]]s and other devices to perform actions when in proximity to an iBeacon.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bfonics Inc.|url=http://bfonics.com/what_is_beacon.php|publisher=Bfonics.com|access-date=10 November 10, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108070354/http://bfonics.com/what_is_beacon.php|archive-date=8 November 8, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | date=18 January 18, 2015 | title=Beacons: Everything you need to know.|url=http://www.pointrlabs.com/blog/beacons-everything-you-need-to-know/|publisher=Pointrlabs.com | access-date=15 April 15, 2015}}</ref>

iBeacon is based on [[Bluetooth Low Energy#Proximity sensing|Bluetooth low energy proximity sensing]] by transmitting a [[universally unique identifier]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://daveaddey.com/?p=1252 |title=iBeacons |publisher=Dave Addey |date=2013-09-September 22, 2013 |access-date=2013-12-December 11, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203014352/http://daveaddey.com/?p=1252 |archive-date=December 3, 2013-12-03 }}</ref> picked up by a compatible app or operating system. The identifier and several bytes sent with it can be used to determine the device's physical location,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://forums.appleinsider.com/t/158126/inside-ios-7-ibeacons-enhance-apps-location-awareness-via-bluetooth-le |title=Inside iOS 7: iBeacons enhance apps' location awareness via Bluetooth LE |publisher=Forums.appleinsider.com |date=2013-06-June 18, 2013 |access-date=2013-12-December 11, 2013}}</ref> track customers, or trigger a [[Location-based service|location-based]] action on the device such as a [[Check-in#Social network|check-in on social media]] or a [[Mobile marketing|push notification]].

iBeacon can also be used with an application as an [[indoor positioning system]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://meetingofideas.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/ibeacons-bible-1-0.pdf |title=iBeacon Bible |publisher=Andy Cavallini |access-date=January 1, 2014-01-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/apple/apple-ibeacons-explained-smart-home-occupancy-sensing-solved.html |title=Apple iBeacons Explained – Smart Home Occupancy Sensing Solved? |date=October 3, 2013 |publisher=Automated Home |access-date=2013-12-December 11, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=iBeacon- The game changer in InStore Navigation|url=http://technoparkliving.com/2013/12/ibeacon-the-game-changer-in-instore-navigation/|access-date=December 11, 2013|archive-date=October 31, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141031190330/http://technoparkliving.com/2013/12/ibeacon-the-game-changer-in-instore-navigation/|url-status=dead}}</ref> which helps smartphones determine their approximate location or context. With the help of an iBeacon, a smartphone's software can approximately find its relative location to an iBeacon in a store. [[Brick and mortar]] retail stores use the beacons for [[mobile commerce]], offering customers special deals through [[mobile marketing]],<ref name="mcforbes">{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/2014/12/18/mcdonalds-ibeacon/|title=Apple iBeacons Find Their Way Into McDonald's|work=Forbes|date=18December Dec18, 2014}}</ref> and can enable [[mobile payment]]s through [[point of sale]] systems.

iBeacon compatible transmitters come in a variety of form factors, including small coin cell devices, USB sticks, and generic Bluetooth 4.0 capable USB [[dongles]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://learn.adafruit.com/pibeacon-ibeacon-with-a-raspberry-pi/overview |title=Overview piBeacon DIY iBeacon with a Raspberry Pi Adafruit Learning System |access-date=May 14, 2014-05-14}}</ref>

An iBeacon deployment consists of one or more iBeacon devices that transmit their own unique identification number to the local area. Software on a receiving device may then look up the iBeacon and perform various functions, such as notifying the user. Receiving devices can also connect to the iBeacons to retrieve values from iBeacon's GATT ([[List of Bluetooth profiles|generic attribute profile]]) service. iBeacons do not push notifications to receiving devices (other than their own identity). However, mobile software can use signals received from iBeacons to trigger their own push notifications.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://myorpheo.com/push-notifications-visitors/ | title=Push Notifications for Visitors | date=November 4, 2014-11-04 | publisher=MyOrpheo | access-date=October 26, 2016 | archive-10date=August 5, 2017 | archive-26url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170805123430/http://myorpheo.com/push-notifications-visitors/ | url-status=dead }}</ref>

As opposed to monitoring, which enables users to detect movement in-and-out of range of the beacons, ranging provides a list of beacons detected in a given region, along with the estimated distance from the user's device to each beacon.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://community.estimote.com/hc/en-us/articles/203356607-What-are-region-Monitoring-and-Ranging-|title=What are region Monitoring and Ranging?|publisher=estimote.com|access-date=26 August 26, 2015}}</ref> Ranging works only in the foreground but will return (to the listening device) an array (unlimited) of all iBeacons found along with their properties ([[UUID]], etc.)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19477044/ibeacon-in-the-background-use-cases/19485055#19485055|title=Charles Capps - iBeacon in the background|publisher=Stackoverflow.com|access-date=10 November 10, 2014}}</ref>

An iOS device receiving an iBeacon transmission can approximate the distance from the iBeacon. The distance (between transmitting iBeacon and receiving device) is categorized into 3 distinct ranges:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j87D-6JA0g8&list=UUPDVZSYjQUryXa_hehQaV5g&index=10|title=What is a Beacons Range Video Tutorial|work=YouTube|access-date=March 10, 2014 |access-date=November 10, 2014}}</ref>

An iBeacon broadcast has the ability to approximate when a user has entered, exited, or lingered in region. Depending on a customer's proximity to a beacon, they are able to receive different levels of interaction at each of these three ranges.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19007306/what-are-the-nominal-distances-for-ibeacon-far-near-and-immediate |title=What are the nominal distances for iBeacon "Far", "Near", and "Immediate" |publisher=Stackoverflow.com|access-date=2014-05-May 19, 2014}}</ref>

[[File:New Battery Life of iBeacons.png|thumb|300px|right|upright|Comparison of 16 major beacon hardware of battery life in months (higher is better) by Aislelabs' The Hitchhikers Guide to iBeacon Hardware<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aislelabs.com/reports/beacon-guide/ |title=The Hitchhikers Guide to iBeacon Hardware: A Comprehensive Report by Aislelabs |publisher= Aislelabs|date=November 3, 2014-11-03|access-date=November 3, 2014-11-03}}</ref>]]

The Bluetooth LE protocol is significantly more power efficient than Bluetooth Classic. Several chipsets makers, including [[Texas Instruments]]<ref>{{cite web | url=httphttps://www.zdnet.com/articlehome-and-office/networking/tis-support-of-apples-ibeacon-adds-enterprise-iot-heft/ | title=TI's support of Apple's iBeacon adds enterprise, IoT heft | last=Dignan | first=Larry | date=2014-04-April 14, 2014 | publisher=ZD Net | access-date=2016-10-October 26, 2016}}</ref> and [[Nordic Semiconductor]] now supply chipsets optimized for iBeacon use. Power consumption depends on iBeacon configuration parameters of advertising interval and transmit power. A study on 16 different iBeacon vendors reports that battery life can range between 1–24 months. Apple's recommended setting of 100 ms advertising interval with a coin cell battery provides for 1–3 months of life, which increases to 2–3 years as advertising interval is increased to 900 ms.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://9to5mac.com/2014/11/03/best-ibeacon-hardware-stress-test-battery-life/ |title=Best iBeacon hardware crowned following extensive stress tests |publisher= 9to5 mac|date=November 3, 2014-11-03|access-date=November 3, 2014-11-03}}</ref>

older phones tend to draw more battery in the vicinity of iBeacons, while the newer phones can be more efficient in the same environment.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://gigaom.com/2014/07/09/retailers-are-excited-about-beacons-but-how-fast-will-they-drain-your-smartphone-battery/ |title=Retailers are excited about beacons, but how fast will they drain your smartphone battery? |publisher= GIGAOM |date=July 9, 2014-07-09 |access-date=July 9, 2014 |archive-07date=July 12, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140712034521/http://gigaom.com/2014/07/09/retailers-are-excited-about-beacons-but-how-fast-will-they-drain-your-smartphone-battery/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> In addition to the time spent by the phone scanning, number of scans and number of beacons in the vicinity are also significant factors for battery drain, as pointed out by the [[Aislelabs]] report.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aislelabs.com/reports/ibeacon-battery-phones/ |title=iBeacon and Battery Drain on Phones: A Technical Report |publisher= Aislelabs|date=July 9, 2014-07-09|access-date=July 9, 2014-07-09}}</ref>

In a follow-up report, Aislelabs found a drastic improvement in battery consumption for iPhone5SiPhone 5s, iPhone 5C5c versus the older model iPhone 4S4s.

At 10 surrounding iBeacons, iPhone 4S4s can consume up to 11% of battery per hour whereas iPhone5SiPhone 5s consumes a little less than 5% battery per hour.

<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aislelabs.com/reports/ibeacon-battery-drain-iphones/ |title=iBeacon Battery Drain on Apple vs Android: A Technical Report - Aislelabs |publisher= Aislelabs|date=August 14, 2014-08-14|access-date=August 14, 2014-08-14}}</ref>

In mid-2013 [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] introduced iBeacons and experts wrote about how it is designed to help the retail industry by simplifying payments and enabling on-site offers. On December 6, 2013, Apple activated iBeacons across its 254 US retail stores.<ref>{{cite web|url=httphttps://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-launches-ibeacon-in-254-stores-to-streamline-shopping-experience-7000024026/ |title=Apple launches iBeacon in 254 stores to streamline shopping experience |publisher=ZDNet |access-date=2013-12-December 18, 2013}}</ref> [[McDonald's]] has used the devices to give special offers to consumers in its fast-food stores.<ref name="mcforbes"/>

[[Bluetooth low energy]] devices can operate in an advertisement mode to notify nearby devices of their presence.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.warski.org/blog/2014/01/how-ibeacons-work/ |title=How do iBeacons work? Blog of Adam Warski |date=January 13, 2014 |publisher=Warski.org|access-date=2014-05-May 14, 2014}}</ref>

In the simplest form, an iBeacon is a Bluetooth low energy device emitting advertisements following a strict format, that being an Apple-defined iBeacon prefix, followed by a variable UUID, and a major, minor pair.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.ibeacon.com/what-is-ibeacon-a-guide-to-beacons/ | title=What is iBeacon? A guide to iBeacon | publisher=ibeacon.com | access-date=April 20, 2014 | archive-04date=March 18, 2015 | archive-20url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150318043205/http://www.ibeacon.com/what-is-ibeacon-a-guide-to-beacons/ | url-status=dead }}</ref> An example iBeacon advertisement frame could look like:

Since iBeacon advertising is just an application of the general Bluetooth Low Energy advertisement, the above iBeacon can be emitted by issuing the following commands on Linux to a supported Bluetooth 4 Low Energy device on a modern kernel:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21124993/is-there-a-way-to-increase-ble-advertisement-frequency-in-bluez |title=Is there a way to increase BLE advertisement frequency in BlueZ? |publisher=Stackoverflow.com|access-date=2014-05-May 14, 2014}}</ref>

For the retransmission interval setting (first of above commands) to work again, the transmission must be stopped with:

Devices running the [[Android operating system]] prior to version 4.3 can only receive iBeacon advertisements but cannot emit iBeacon advertisements. Android 5.0 ("Lollipop") added the support for both central and peripheral modes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mobilepaymentstoday.com/article/221089/SDK-will-let-Android-users-join-the-iBeacon-party |title=SDK will let Android users join the iBeacon party |publisher=MobilePaymentsToday.com |date=2013-10-October 11, 2013 |access-date=December 11, 2013-12-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212060343/http://www.mobilepaymentstoday.com/article/221089/SDK-will-let-Android-users-join-the-iBeacon-party |archive-date=December 12, 2013-12-12 }}</ref>

==BLE Advertisementadvertisement Packetpacket Structurestructure Bytebyte Mapmap==

Byte 29: TXPower Measured Power (8 bit Signed value, ranges from -128 to 127, use Two's ComplimentComplement to "convert" if necessary, Units: Measured Transmission Power in dBm @ 1 meters from beacon) (Set by user, not dynamic, can be used in conjunction with the received RSSI at a receiver to calculate rough distance to beacon)

BLE support was introduced in [[Android Jelly Bean]] with major bug fixes in [[Android KitKat]]. Stability improvementimprovements and additional BLE features have been progressively added there after, with a major stability improvement in version 6.01 of [[Android Marshmallow]] that prevents inter-app connection leaking.

Successful spoofing of Apple store iBeacons was reported in February 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21955246/how-to-prevent-spoofing-of-ibeacons |title=android - How to prevent spoofing of iBeacons? - Stack Overflow |publisher=Stackoverflow.com|access-date=2014-05-May 14, 2014}}</ref>

[[PayPal]] has taken a more robust approach, where the iBeacon is purely the start of a complex security negotiation ([[Challenge–response authentication]]). This is not likely to be hacked, nor is it likely that it would be disrupted by copies of beacons.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://global.verifone.com/media/3603729/bluetooth-low-energy-beacons-retail-wp.pdf |title=Bluetooth Low Energy, Beacons and Retail - VeriFone Systems, Inc. |publisher=Global.verifone.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141110151806/http://global.verifone.com/media/3603729/bluetooth-low-energy-beacons-retail-wp.pdf |archive-date=2014-11-November 10, 2014 |url-status=dead |access-date=June 3, 2014-06-03 }}</ref>

hcitool -i hci0 lescan—passivelescan --passive --duplicates

* iOS devices with Bluetooth 4.0+ ([[iPhone 4S4s]] and later, [[iPad (3rd generation)]] and later, [[iPad Mini (1st generation)]] and later, and [[iPod Touch (5th generation)]] and later)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6048|title=iOS: Understanding iBeacon|publisher=Apple Inc.|date=December 4, 2013-12-04|access-date=2014-03-March 13, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://bluetoothbeacons.com/iphone-ibeacon-transmitter/|title=How to Configure your iPhone as an iBeacon Transmitter|publisher=Bluetoothbeacons.com|access-date=February 17, 2014|archive-02-date=March 17, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140317055209/http://bluetoothbeacons.com/iphone-ibeacon-transmitter/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

* Android Devices with Bluetooth 4.0+ and Android OS 4.3+ (e.g. Samsung Galaxy S7/J1 mini Prime, Samsung Galaxy Note 2/3, [[HTC One series|HTC One]], Google/LG Nexus 7 2013 /Nexus 4/Nexus 5, OnePlus One, LG G3)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/connectivity/bluetooth-le|title=Bluetooth low energy overview|publisher=Google Inc.|access-date=November 9, 2019-11-09}}</ref>