Espressif's flagship chip ESP32 has recently passed the SIG Bluetooth LE 5.0 certification. This affirms that the protocol version supported by the ESP32 microcontroller has been upgraded from Bluetooth LE 4.2 to Bluetooth LE 5.0, which has higher stability and compatibility.

Implementing and developing Bluetooth LE applications requires not only a chip that supports this function, but also the accompanying Bluetooth LE protocol stack, which consists of the controller and the host.

• Controller: Defines the specifications of such hardware as RF and Baseband.
• Host: The Logical Link Control and Adaptation Layer Protocol (L2CAP) provides data encapsulation services to the upper layers, allowing for logical end-to-end communication of data.

With the Bluetooth LE 5.0 certification, the ESP32 SoC has also added new features which have not only upgraded our chip as a whole, but have also strengthened its latest software, after passing a greater amount of strict tests since the previous certification.

ESP32 customers can use the Bluetooth LE Host protocol stack in ESP-IDF, which supports two sorts of Bluetooth LE Hosts:

• NimBLE Host (Bluetooth LE 5.1-certified)
• Bluedroid Host (soon to be certified by Bluetooth LE 5.0).

Due to hardware limitations, ESP32 does not support such functions of Bluetooth LE 5.0 as 2M PHY, LE Long Range, and ADV Extensions.

 It is also worth mentioning that the combination of Bluetooth and Mesh networking is expected to become a key technology for the Internet of Things. A  Bluetooth®  Mesh network enables a "many-to-many" relationship among potentially thousands of wireless devices, where data are transmitted not in a direct radio range but in wide physical areas. Espressif’s contribution in this field is the ESP-BLE-MESH, which got fully certified by Bluetooth SIG in September 2019.

Several Bluetooth-operated products on the market, such as wearable devices, smart speakers, cleaning robots, smart lights/sockets, etc., provide evidence that Bluetooth 5.0 and the Bluetooth Mesh networking technology are mature enough to drive the development of interconnected IoT devices. To this end, Espressif’s chips and ESP-BLE-MESH, in particular, are designed to help customers develop easily secure and cost-effective products for smart homes, smart buildings, healthcare, new automobiles and other smart industries.

Espressif is committed to offering cutting-edge technological solutions in the field of the Artificial Intelligence of Things. In doing so, we remain committed to developing technologies that benefit everyone, facilitating wireless connectivity, and initiating as many people as possible into the high-tech world of “smart life”.