BLE Beacons & Tags for Indoor Tracking

Buyer's Guide

How to choose the right BLE beacon

Choose the form factor first — what the beacon is attached to decides its size, mounting and battery. Then set the advertising interval and transmit power, because those two settings control both your detection range and how long the battery lasts. Send us your site layout and what you need to see, and we will size the beacons and gateways for it.

Standard BLE parameters

Parameter	Typical range or option	What it affects
Radio	Bluetooth Low Energy 4.2 / 5.x	2.4 GHz ISM band (2400–2483.5 MHz), harmonised worldwide
Broadcast format	iBeacon, Eddystone, AltBeacon	Which apps and platforms can read the beacon unmodified
Transmit power	Configurable, around −40 to +4 dBm	Raising power extends range and shortens battery life
Advertising interval	Typically 100 ms to 10 s	Shorter intervals detect movement faster and drain the cell faster
Range, line of sight	Roughly 10–100 m	Walls, metal racking and machinery cut this sharply in practice
Battery	CR2032 / CR2477 coin cell, or a larger pack on industrial units	Cell size sets the ceiling on service life
Service life	Months to several years	Decided together by interval, power, cell size and site temperature
Ingress protection	IP65 / IP67 / IP68 variants	Washdown areas, outdoor yards and submersion each need a different rating
Sensors, optional	Temperature, humidity, motion, call button	Adds telemetry to the broadcast for cold chain and safety use
Positioning method	Zone-level by signal strength; sub-metre with BLE 5.1 angle-of-arrival	Angle-of-arrival needs compatible gateways and costs more per zone

These are the parameters of the BLE standard and the options available across the format — they are not a single product's datasheet. Final figures are confirmed on the datasheet issued with your quote.

Choose by form factor

Form factor	Typically used for	Attached to	Decide on
Asset beacon	Tools, trolleys, equipment, returnable containers	Screw, strap or industrial adhesive	Battery size and whether the battery is replaceable
Adhesive label beacon	Cartons, files, light assets, retail fixtures	Peel-and-stick	Surface material and whether it must survive removal
Card beacon	Staff, contractors and visitor badges	Lanyard or badge holder	Whether it must also work as an access-control card
Wristband beacon	Patients, workers in high-risk zones, event attendees	Worn on the wrist	Single-use or reusable, and the cleaning regime
Industrial beacon	Outdoor yards, washdown areas, vehicles, plant	Bolt or magnet mount	Ingress protection and the temperature range on site
Sensor beacon	Cold chain, pharma stores, server rooms	Placed with the goods	Which sensor (temperature, humidity, motion) and logging interval
Gateway / receiver	Fixed infrastructure that hears the beacons	Ceiling or wall, mains or PoE	Coverage per unit, power available, and backhaul (Wi-Fi, Ethernet, 4G)

Beacons only produce data once something is listening. Budget for gateways in every zone you want to see, or plan to read them with a phone app during walk-rounds.

Choose by broadcast format

The format decides which apps and platforms can read the beacon without custom work.

iBeacon — Apple's format. Broadcasts a UUID with major and minor values. The safest default for iOS and for most commercial platforms.
Eddystone — Open format. Can broadcast an ID, a URL or device telemetry such as battery and temperature.
AltBeacon — Open, vendor-neutral format. Useful when you do not want to depend on a single vendor's specification.
Custom / BLE 5.x — For sensor payloads or direction finding. Bluetooth 5.1 added angle-of-arrival, which supports far tighter positioning than signal strength alone.

BLE or UHF RFID?

They solve different problems, and most of our deployments use both.

Use BLE when — You need to locate something continuously inside a building, track people safely, read tags with an ordinary smartphone, or carry sensor data such as temperature.
Use UHF RFID when — You are reading many items at once at a fixed point such as a gate or dock, the tag must be cheap enough to put on every item, and the tag cannot have a battery.
The practical difference — A BLE beacon has its own battery and announces itself continuously. A passive RFID tag has no battery and is only visible when it passes a reader.
Cost shape — BLE moves cost into the tag and reduces fixed reader infrastructure. Passive RFID moves cost into readers and keeps the per-item tag cheap.

What else the deployment needs

Gateways — Fixed receivers that pick up beacon broadcasts and forward them to your server. Placement decides your real accuracy.
Positioning software — Converts signal readings into zones, dwell times and movement history, and raises the alerts your team actually acts on.
Integration — Beacon data is most useful inside the systems you already run — ERP, maintenance, EHS or your existing POXO RFID deployment.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a BLE beacon and an RFID tag?

A BLE beacon contains a battery and transmits its identity continuously, so it can be located anywhere a receiver or phone can hear it. A passive RFID tag has no battery and is only detected when it passes a reader, which makes it far cheaper per item but means you only see it at fixed points.

How far away can a BLE beacon be detected?

Bluetooth Low Energy typically carries tens of metres in open space, but walls, metal and machinery reduce that sharply on a real site. Range is set by transmit power, which trades directly against battery life, so it is tuned per deployment rather than fixed.

Do we need special readers, or will staff phones work?

Any Bluetooth-capable smartphone can read standard beacons, which suits audits and walk-round checks. For continuous, unattended tracking you need fixed gateways in each zone, because a phone only sees beacons while someone is carrying it.

How long does the battery last?

It depends on the cell size, how often the beacon advertises, the transmit power and the site temperature — the same hardware can last months or years depending on how it is configured. Tell us how quickly you need to see movement and we will quote the configuration and the expected life together.

Which frequency do BLE beacons use, and does that change by country?

Bluetooth Low Energy uses the 2.4 GHz band, which is harmonised worldwide. That is a practical advantage over UHF RFID, where the permitted band differs between India, Europe and the US, so the same beacon hardware can be deployed across international sites.

Can beacons work alongside our existing POXO RFID system?

Yes. Beacon data and RFID reads can feed the same dashboard and the same ERP integration, so a single asset can be tracked continuously indoors by BLE and verified at gates by RFID.