{"id":4017,"date":"2020-11-26T16:54:22","date_gmt":"2020-11-26T16:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elainnovation.com\/what-is-a-beacon-what-uses-in-the-industry\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T14:07:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:07:19","slug":"what-is-a-beacon-what-uses-in-the-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elainnovation.com\/en\/what-is-a-beacon-what-uses-in-the-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a beacon? What is a beacon used for?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is a beacon? If you’re interested in the world of industrial connected objects, you’ll soon be asking yourself this question. In this guide, we explain in detail what a Bluetooth beacon is, how it works and what it’s used for. <\/p>\n\n

According to the 2024 Bluetooth Market Update<\/em> published by the Bluetooth SIG, annual shipments of Bluetooth devices dedicated to location-based services are expected to reach 563 million units by 2028. In terms of the overall market, the BLE beacon market is estimated at $12.35 billion in 2025, and should reach $87.40 billion by 2031, with an annual growth rate of almost 39%. The retail sector alone accounts for more than 50% of the market<\/strong>, but in recent years Bluetooth Low Energy<\/strong> technology has developed strongly in many sectors, including logistics, transport and industry. <\/p>\n\n

What is a beacon? <\/strong>What is the definition of a beacon?<\/h2>\n\n

A beacon<\/a> is a Bluetooth Low Energy<\/strong> (BLE) beacon<\/strong> belonging to the large family of connected objects. Measuring just a few centimeters in diameter, the beacon emits radio waves with a range of<\/strong> up to several hundred meters<\/strong>, sending information that can be picked up by devices with Bluetooth connectivity (smartphones, computers, tablets, etc.). <\/p>\n\n

\"Beacon<\/figure>\n\n

One of the main advantages of BLE’s wireless communication protocol is its low energy consumption<\/strong>, giving beacons an autonomy of up to 20 years.<\/p>\n\n

Apple was one of the forerunners in the beacon market, launching its iBeacon<\/strong> offering dedicated to wireless beacon developers and manufacturers in 2013. Indeed, iBeacon is not an object per se, but a data frame format, enabling Bluetooth beacons to communicate with iOS<\/strong> devices. The release of the first beacons was quickly followed by Radius Network’sAltBeacon<\/strong> (an open source\/open protocol) in 2014 and by Google with its Eddystone<\/strong> beacons released in 2015. <\/p>\n\n

Today, there are more than 50 manufacturers of Bluetooth Low Energy beacons, and numerous suppliers of technical platforms enabling beacons to interface with mobile applications numbering in the thousands.<\/p>\n\n

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How does a Bluetooth beacon work?<\/h2>\n\n

What is a beacon made of?<\/h3>\n\n

To understand how a beacon works, it’s important to know what this connected object is made of. Inside a beacon you’ll find: a battery, a microcontroller, an antenna, a radio module, sensors and, last but not least, a UUID (Universal Unique Identifer)<\/strong> to identify it. <\/p>\n\n

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What infrastructure is needed?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

In practice, what infrastructure is needed to use beacons?<\/p>\n\n

If you want to set up a remote identification solution using Bluetooth LE technology, you’ll need wireless beacons<\/strong>, a Bluetooth receiver<\/strong> (smartphone, tablet, PC or dongle, called “devices” in the jargon) and a software\/application<\/strong>, enabling you to upload data to your server<\/strong>. Unlike active RFID tags, BLE technology benefits from the large number of compatible devices already installed. <\/p>\n\n

Today, many smartphones, laptops and embedded computers are Bluetooth compatible. By downloading a mobile application from a store, or a software program, you can access the information<\/strong> emitted by the beacon. Whereas with RFID, you’d need to have the beacon and receiver from the same manufacturer, and often its associated software. As Bluetooth is a non-proprietary protocol, it allows greater freedom and flexibility<\/strong> in the choice of infrastructure. <\/p>\n\n

The main frame formats: iBeacon and Eddystone<\/h2>\n\n

Not all BLE beacons communicate in the same way: the content of the data transmitted depends on the frame format used. Two protocols dominate the market. <\/p>\n\n

iBeacon<\/strong>, launched by Apple in 2013, is the most widespread format. Each beacon broadcasts a UUID, a Major field and a Minor field, enabling an iOS or Android app to detect it and trigger an action accordingly. <\/p>\n\n

Eddystone<\/strong>, developed by Google in 2015, stands out for its flexibility: it can broadcast a unique identifier, a URL or telemetry data (temperature, battery level). As an open format, it is not tied to any proprietary ecosystem. <\/p>\n\n

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Discover our wide range of BLE beacons<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

renowned for their sturdiness and high autonomy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Find out more<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
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What data does the beacon send?<\/h3>\n\n

Contrary to what you might think, a beacon doesn’t send notifications or images. In fact, the type of data transmitted by beacons will vary from one frame format to another<\/strong>. Many beacon manufacturers offer their own frame formats, but let’s take the example of iBeacon and Eddystone, the two best-known formats on the market today. <\/p>\n\n

For Apple’s iBeacon, the beacon is able to emit 3 pieces of information: a reference number (UUID, 16 bytes long), and two identification numbers (Major, Minor) that will differentiate it from all the other beacons around it. The use of this format is often handled on an event-driven<\/strong> basis. It’s the application with which the beacon is interfaced that’s responsible for triggering the events. <\/p>\n\n

When the application finds itself in the beacon field, it triggers 2 events:<\/p>\n\n