iBeacon versus non iBeacon BLE Beacon

[dave]

Hello. I am new to BLE development so some of this may not make sense. I am looking for some advice and corrections to what I might be misunderstanding. I would like some clarification on Beacon versus iBeacon. As I understand it, all iBeacons are BLE Beacons but not all beacons are iBeacons. iBeacon is the Apple-trademarked specification for the protocol of the advertisement data for standard BLE device. Is that correct? Are there currently beacon devices that are not iBeacons?

I am investigating incorporating a BLE beacon into a product, not using off the shelf beacons. Given this, one thing I am not sure I like about the iBeacon protocol, besides Apple’s increasing control over it, is the designation of the major and minor numbers for individual beacon identification. As I understand it, if I were to develop an iBeacon device and companion app, I would likely have a small numbers of UUIDs which would need to be registered with Apple. I could then assign many major and minor numbers within those UUIDs. What I think I would rather do is have my beacon devices advertise a custom format, each with a unique UUID that does not need to be registered with Apple. The UUID would be assigned during production of the end product and would be unique to that product – much like a serial number. My app would be able to understand this format and read the UUID. Does this make sense? This way, I would have no ties to Apple. What I am not sure on is if this is possible on IOS. I assume it is possible with Android although I have not directly experimented with it yet. With Apple increasingly locking down their iBeacon, for example, rejecting apps which allow you to input a UUID, I am wondering if they will lock down access to reading the data of custom BLE advertisements – is that even possible for them to do?

I have read a bit about altBeacon which seems more along the lines of what I am looking for but I am not sure if it is a better way to go either.

Any advice, links to more info, or further discussion on this topic is greatly appreciated. My gut feeling is that for this application I do not want to use iBeacon but I am not sure.

Cheers,

Dave

[Fredrik]

"iBeacon" is indeed an Apple trademark.

I am not aware of any beacon-like devices currently being sold that do not follow the iBeacon protocol. However, there are some beacons, like Estimote's, that use a different protocol in addition to the iBeacon protocol.

Estimote in particular uses the "Manufacturer Data" field in the BLE advertisement packet to transmit identification data such that the iOS CoreBluetooth API can report it to apps. Android and other BLE platforms are also able to read this data.

I don't think you have to register anything with Apple in order to manufacture iBeacons. The 128-bit UUID field is, after all, designed so that people (even without knowledge of any other UUIDs being used) can generate random UUIDs with negligible risk of collision. However, you may need Apple's permission to use the term "iBeacon" in advertising or other public communications. How to aquire such permission is beyond the scope of this forum.

In any case, you could follow Estimote's example and use the Manufacturer Data field exclusively.

Apple may, of course, lock down, disable, change, or otherwise mess with any part of their software. One should be very cautious about depending heavily on them.

[josephshirk]

https://punchthrough.com/bean/ LightBlue Bean would qualify as a beacon, though it's a full-on arduinoid.

[micke]

Estimote recently launched Estimote Stickers, which uses a non-iBeacon protocol.

Here is a blogpost that may be of interest with respect to non-iBeacon beacons:

"DIY Arduino Beacons as an alternative to iBeacons" - http://evothings.com/diy-arduino-beacons/

Best, Mikael