W. Narzt, L. Furtmüller: Imitating Near Field Communication with Bluetooth Low Energy, Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Advances in Mobile Computing & Multimedia (MoMM2015), Brussels, Belgium, December 11-13, 2015, ISBN: 978-1-4503-3493-8, ACM New York, NY, USA, pp. 322-325, doi:10.1145/2837126.2837184.
Bluetooth, respectively the extended standard Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is being used for mid-range transmission scenarios where distances of a few meters are to be covered by appropriate radio technology. However, the signal characteristics of BLE also reveal deterministic behavior at very close proximity between sender and receiver with significant higher signal strengths compared to distant placements, which potentially qualifies BLE as a substitute technology for Near Field Communication (NFC). This paper investigates the signal strength behavior of BLE at short distances and points out potential benefits and application areas for a transmission technology simultaneously operating at both near and mid distances.