Wireless & Contactless
BLE
Acronym. See "Bluetooth Low Energy"
A set of standards for wireless technologies that were originally conceived for point-to-point data exchanges between fixed and mobile electronic devices in the radio bands ranging from 2.400 to 2.485 GHz. It is referred to as a wireless Personal Area Network (PAN) technology.
The Bluetooth standards are managed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). The IEEE had standardized Bluetooth as IEEE 802.15.1.
Bluetooth is a trademark of the Bluetooth SIG, which oversees standards evolutions and promotes the interoperability of Bluetooth enabled devices through a registration, testing and certification program.
Bluetooth Classic
A name commonly used to refer to the Bluetooth standards prior to Bluetooth Smart (a.k.a. Bluetooth Low Energy or BLE).
A standard for a wireless technology related to the Bluetooth 'Classic' standard. Commonly referred to as BLE, it is conceived for point-to-point data exchanges between fixed and mobile electronic devices with considerably reduced power consumption. It uses the radio bands ranging from 2.400 to 2.485 GHz. Devices that use both BLE and Bluetooth 'Classic' can do so using the same antenna.
It is referred to as a wireless Personal Area Network (PAN) technology.
The original marketing name for the Bluetooth technology commonly referred to as "Bluetooth Low Energy" or "BLE."
Bluetooth Smart is a trademark of the Bluetooth SIG, which oversees standards evolutions and promotes the interoperability of Bluetooth enabled devices through a registration, testing and certification program.
Acronym. See "CE Radio Equipment Directive"
CE Radio Equipment Directive (CE-RED)
Refers to the regulatory framework for placing radio equipment on the market in EU member countries. CE RED sets the EU market requirements on radio equipment in regards to safety, health, electromagnetic compatibility, and efficient use of the radio spectrum.
Acronym for the "Federal Communications Commission."
Federal Communications Commission
Federal-level regulatory agency in the United States of America that controls the introduction on the market of all devices capable of emitting radio frequency energy which may cause interference to radio services for other devices in the frequency range of 9 kHz to 3000 GHz.
LoRa
A wireless technology for Low-Power Wide-Area Networks. LoRa is conceived for long range (up to 10 Km) data exchanges with considerably low power consumption. It uses the sub-gigahertz, license-free 169 MHz, 433 MHz, 868 MHz (Europe) and 915 MHz (North America) radio frequency bands.
LoRa technology is supported and promoted by the LoRa Alliance, a non-profit association created in 2015 to oversee and ensure interoperability of products implementing the technology.
A type of wireless wide area telecommunication network, which is designed for long range communications at a low bit rate. Typically this type of network would be used to connect battery-powered objects such as sensors.
LP-WAN
Acronym. See Low-Power Wide-Area Network.
NB-IOT
Acronym for "Narrowband Internet of Things."
A wireless communication standard that regroups a set of communication protocols, which were conceived to allow two devices to communicate over a very short distances (up to 3 cm). Originally used in secure payment and access control applications, these technologies often implicate a passive device in a card or tag format and an active device such as a card reader or mobile phone. The passive device gets its power supply from the radio field of the active device.
NFC is used increasingly in applications where it is used to open and secure wireless communications (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc.) between two electronic devices. This process is often referred to as "wake-up and pairing."
Near Field Communication is a trademark of the NFC Forum, the global organization that oversees this standard and promotes interoperability of products that use NFC technology.
Acronym. See "Near Field Communication"
PAN
Acronym. See "Personal Area Network"
personal area network
A communication network for interconnecting devices in an individual's workspace.
radio frequency identification
A general term for any of a range of several wireless communication technologies that use electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track electronic circuits, which contain stored data and are attached to objects, commonly in the form of tags. Tags are passive electronic devices that get their power supply from an active device, or reader. Communication ranges very depending on the technology from a few centimeters to several meters.
RFID
Acronym. See "Radio Frequency IDentification"
WAN
Acronym. See Wide Area Network.
wide area network
A telecommunications network for interconnecting electronic systems over a large geographical distance. Primarily used for computer networking.
A set of standards for wireless technologies that were originally conceived for use in Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) of devices. Wi-Fi is based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards.
Wi‑Fi is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance, which oversees and promotes the interoperability of Wi-Fi Certified devices through a registration, testing and certification program.
A computer network that uses wireless communications to form a local area network of devices within a limited space such as a home or office building etc. A WLAN may also be connected to a larger network such as the internet via a gateway.
WLAN
Acronym. See Wireless Local Area Network.