Chapter 10. Beacons

BLE beacons broadcast data using the Generic Access Profile (GAP). A BLE observer does not need to connect to beacons to receive the broadcasted data, it only needs to scan for advertisements.

Beacons are intended to be used for proximity-based applications. For example, your smartphone can use the signal strength of a detected beacon to estimate how close you are to it, and react accordingly by alerting you or providing more relevant content to the beacon you are closest to. The closer you are to a beacon, the more accurate the proximity estimate becomes. Keep in mind that the proximity is just an estimate based on the received signal strength of the beacons; interference from other devices and objects can radically change ...

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