Combining Bluetooth and Low Power Cellular for IoT: Practical Design Considerations and Innovative Use Cases

This white paper is the third in a series of guides that provide product engineers with practical advice on how to take advantage of the capabilities of the low power cellular protocols LTE-M and NB-IoT. Jonathan Kaye and Paul Elvikis co-wrote the first white paper in this series, titled Choosing the Right Route to Low-Power Cellular IoT: A User Guide to Simplifying LTE-M/ NB-IoT Design Projects. In addition to providing a primer on the technologies, that white paper provided a number of best practices and caveats for engineers navigating through their first few cellular IoT design projects. The second white paper in this series, titled Cellular IoT Modem vs. Module: Navigating a Crucial Decision for IoT Design Projects, does a deep dive into one of the most critical decisions an engineering team makes in the early stages of a cellular IoT project.

This third cellular IoT white paper examines another topic that many engineering teams should think about early on in their planning processes: how to expand the use cases of LTE-M and NB-IoT by combining those two cellular technologies with Bluetooth. This white paper explores that topic in depth and also presents three innovative use cases that become possible when combining cellular IoT and Bluetooth.