BLE and Wi-Fi Channels

A quick illustration of spectrum sharing: the three most-used US Wi-Fi channels overlaid on Bluetooth Low Energy’s 40 physical-layer channels, showing how both technologies must coexist in the crowded 2.4 GHz band.

Key Takeaways

• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy share the same crowded 2.4 GHz band
• The three common US Wi-Fi channels overlap BLE’s 40 physical-layer channels
• Both protocols have more channels than shown, but the overlap illustrates the coexistence challenge
• Sharing the band means interference and contention are inherent to the environment

Video Transcript

So speaking of COVID in spectrum sharing, this is just one illustration of the three most commonly used wifi channels in the US overlaid on the forty physical layer channels available through Bluetooth low energy. Now there's more channels in both wifi and Bluetooth. But that gets really messy. So just to illustrate how these kind of have to coexist together, this just gives you an idea that they're all sharing the same two point four gigahertz band.