altbeacon: the open and interoperable beacon specification
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AltBeaconThe Open and Interoperable Proximity Beacon Specification
Company Overview
● Founded 2011
● Washington DC HQ
● Experienced, Successful Team
● Recognized Leader in Developer Community
● Largest Production Networks in Industry
Proven Performance
Global experience with large deployments○ Major Pharmacy Deployments○ QSRs○ Gas Stations○ Stadiums○ US and International○ C-Stores○ App Integrations
Patented, deep technology stack
Multi-Platform support using interleaved Multi-Beacon technology
We build and deploy innovative proximity and location products that drive interactive customer behavior
About Radius Networks
Radius Networks Industry Leading Open Technology Stack
Proximity Developer Tools
High Performance Beacons
Campaign Kit
Proximity Kit
Director
Proximity Campaign Management that Drives User Experience and Rich Content Delivery
Beacon and Geofence Provisioning Service with Proximity Analytics and Reporting
Beacon Fleet Management with Status Monitoring and Remote Plug-&-Play Configuration
Mobile SDKs and Beacon Discovery, Emulation and Test Tools
Multi-Beacons with iBeacon and AltBeacon with a range of Form Factor, Power and Connectivity Options
● Bluetooth v4.0 transmitter
● Used to mark a place or a thing
● Compatible mobile devices can uniquely identify and determine proximity to a beacon
● Typical range of 25m to 40m
What is a Beacon?
Beacon advertisements basically contain…● Identifier - Represents a
specific place or thing
● Measured Power Value - Represents the signal strength of the beacon at 1m distance.
What is a Beacon?
● The mobile app must specify the beacons to be monitored
● App will be notified of region enter and region exit events, even when the app is in the background or terminated.
● Can range for proximity zone while in region by comparing actual signal strength to measured power value.
How Do Mobile Apps Use Beacons
● iBeacon is the most popular beacon type. Defined by Apple for use with iOS mobile devices.
● AltBeacon is a complementary, open-source alternative introduced by Radius Networks for non-iOS mobile devices.
● Samsung recently introduced Placedge beacon technology, developed in partnership with Radius Networks.
● Other major mobile vendors hint at future beacon alternatives ?
Different Kinds of Beacons
AltBeacon: The Open and Interoperable Proximity Beacon Specification
● Defines the format of a proximity advertisement message that Bluetooth Smart (Low Energy) proximity beacons can broadcast.
● Intended to create an open, competitive market for proximity beacon implementations.
● Free for all to implement, with no royalty or fees.
● Does not favor one vendor over another for any reason other than the technical standards compliance of a vendor's implementation.
AltBeacon
Why is AltBeacon Needed?
AltBeacon Design Goals
● Provide a concise proximity advertising message for interchange of proximity information between advertisers and scanners
● Maintain compliance with Bluetooth Specification Version 4.0 by utilizing defined advertising PDU and advertising data structures
● Encourage adoption by all interested parties by avoiding any obvious implementation and licensing restrictions
● Enable the implementation of vendor-specific features, if possible
AltBeacon Implementation
● AltBeacon proximity advertising can be incorporated as a feature of any device that is Bluetooth Smart (Low Energy) compliant
● AltBeacon advertisements are encapsulated as the 28 byte payload of a non-connectable undirected advertising PDU (ADV_NONCONN_IND)
AltBeacon Advertisement Details
Field Name Description Accepted Values
AD LENGTH[MFG SPECIFIC]
Length of the type and data portion of the Manufacturer Specific advertising data structure.
0x1B (27)
AD TYPE[MFG SPECIFIC]
Type representing the Manufacturer Specific advertising data structure.
0xFF (255)
MFG ID The beacon device manufacturer's company identifier code.
The beacon device manufacturer's BLUETOOTH SIG company code
BEACON CODE The AltBeacon advertisement code 0xBEAC
BEACON ID A 20-byte value uniquely identifying the beacon
16 bytes representing the advertiser's organizational unit
4 byte identifier that may be subdivided as needed for the use case.
REF RSSI A 1-byte value representing the average received signal strength at 1m distance
A signed 1-byte value from 0 to -127
MFG RSVD Reserved for use by the manufacturer to implement special features
A 1-byte value defined by the manufacturer and is to be evaluated based on the MFG ID value
● Multi-beacons solve the fragmentation problem of multiple, incompatible beacon advertisement types.
● A multi-beacon transmits multiple beacon advertisement formats concurrently.
● Proximity services are delivered equally to iOS and Android devices.
● RadBeacons from Radius Networks are multi-beacons supporting both iBeacon and AltBeacon.
What is a Multi-Beacon?
RadBeacon Multi-Beacons
RadBeacon X22 AA battery powered
Ruggedized & weatherproof
Multi-Beacon with iBeacon & AltBeacon
RadBeacon USBUSB powered
Standalone or integrated with existing
equipment
Multi-Beacon with iBeacon & AltBeacon
RadBeacon TagCoin-cell battery powered
Small in size and flexibly deployable
Multi-Beacon with iBeacon & AltBeacon
RadBeacon X44 AA battery powered
Ruggedized & weatherproof
Multi-Beacon with iBeacon & AltBeacon
Developer Tools & Libraries
OS X Tools
Developer Hardware
iOS Tools
Open Source Tools
AltBeacon LocateApp
AltBeacon Open Source Proximity Beacon
AltBeacon QuickBeaconApp
Beacon LocateApp
QuickBeaconApp
RadBeacon ConfigurationApp
MacBeacon forOS X
QuickBeacon forOS X
ScanBeacon forOS X
RadBeacon Tag (Battery) RadBeacon USB
PiBeacon
Visit AltBeacon.org
● Get a copy of the specification● Submit comments, open issues and contribute to the future
direction of AltBeacon● Access the Android AltBeacon Proximity Library● Access implementation examples, sample code and
development & testing tools
Get Involved in AltBeacon!
