Bluetooth Releases Version 4.2

According to an official press release, Version 4.2 of the Bluetooth Core Specification came out near the end of 2014. Executive Director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) Mark Powell says the 4.2 update hopes to continue making Bluetooth Smart “the best solution to connect all the technology in your life.” Bluetooth Core Specification 4.2 hopes to give developers and manufacturers more opportunities to use Bluetooth and build better user experiences for their consumers.

Bluetooth 4.2.
Source: Bluetooth.

Version 4.2 hopes to make Bluetooth Smart the “ideal wireless technology for the Internet of Things (IoT).” To achieve this, updates include increased speed, improved privacy and security, and IP connectivity capabilities.

Bluetooth calls their new privacy and security settings “industry-leading.” The features make it difficult for those without permission to track devices through its Bluetooth connection. These new settings are lower in power-consumption than previous settings.

The speed of data transfer between Bluetooth Smart devices has increased up to 2.5 times compared to previous versions. In addition, Bluetooth 4.2 has nearly ten times more of a packet capacity for data versus previous versions. Data transfer is now more reliable and efficient, and it consumes less power thanks to the increase in speed and packet capacity.

Bluetooth’s Internet Protocol Support Profile (ISPS) will allow Bluetooth Smart devices to access the web directly with IPv6/6LoWPAN. The company cites an estimate by the Harvard Business Review that the IoT will connect over 28 billion “things” to the Internet by 2020. Bluetooth’s hope is to improve the IoT with their low-power IP connectivity and Bluetooth Smart Generic Attribute Profiles (GATT). The GATT will be available early this year.

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