The combined function of Bluetooth beacons and 4G Internet of Things gateways (such as MG6 Stellar) is one of the prominent architectures of the industrial Internet of Things. The MG6 Stellar can simultaneously connect to 128 Bluetooth beacors, with the speed of data transmission at up to 2Mbps, and realizes cloud synchronization at the millisecond level on the basis of the 4G Cat-M1 network. For example, when DB Schenker utilized 300 beacons and 20 MG6 gateways from DB Schenker, a German logistics operator, the delay of the asset location query was reduced from 15 seconds to 0.8 seconds, and manual inventory cost was reduced by 48%. The BLE 5.1 protocol of the beacon can coexist with the dual-mode 802.15.4 Zigbee chip of the gateway. Coverage of the signal is enhanced from 70 meters at a given point to 500 meters for the entire network, and installation density goes down by 60%.
In the smart agriculture application, deployment of the MG6 Stellar gateway and Bluetooth beacons significantly enhances environmental monitoring efficiency. 80 outdoor weather-resistant beacons (-30°C to +60°C operating temperature) were installed in a vineyard in California, USA. Soil water content (accuracy ±2%) and temperature readings were sampled at 10-minute intervals. When the traffic was aggregated by the gateway, traffic consumption was only one-third of the traditional LoRa solution. The system reduced irrigation water consumption by 22% and increased grape production by 17% year on year. The research shows that the 0.1-watt low power consumption feature of the beacon, when utilized with the solar power supply module of the gateway, can extend the life of the device to 8 years and reduce the cost by 75% compared to the pure cellular solution.
The retail industry optimizes supply chain management employing this technology. In 2023, Walmart used 2,000 beacon with the MG6 Stellar gateway in its pilots, increasing the response rate of shelf replenishment by 40% and reducing the error in inventory turnover from ±8% to ±1.5%. The Eddystone-EID encrypted frame of the beacon is encrypted and transmitted through the gateway AES-256, reducing the risk of data leakage by 90%. According to ABI Research, the payback cost for organizations adopting such solutions is 14 months and operation and maintenance cost throughout the entire lifetime is 62% lower than the Wi-Fi+RFID solution.
In healthcare, a combination of bluetooth beacon with 4G gateways offers high-accuracy device tracking. After Mayo Clinic installed 500 medical-grade beacon (ISO 13485 compliant) and 15 MG6 gateways, the mobile medical device positioning success rate reached 99.7%, and the search time for nurses per day reduced by 55 minutes. Edge computing capability of the gateway is also capable of processing 80% of beacon data locally (such as motion trajectory analysis), reducing cloud traffic cost by 43%. The device firmware was upgraded via the gateway OTA, reducing the fault repair cycle from 72 hours to 20 minutes and increasing the system availability to 99.95%.
Technically, the 4G uplink speed of 50Mbps of the MG6 Stellar is perfectly matched with the 1Hz broadcast frequency of the beacon. In mobile environments such as highways, the vehicle position error in tracking is less than 1 meter (120km/h speed). Dutch TNT Express trials show that the combination of on-board beacons and gateways has reduced cargo loss rates from 0.5% to 0.02% and decreased insurance claim costs by 2.8 million euros every year. 2024 Gartner report indicates market size of 4G gateways that support Bluetooth beacons will be 3.4 billion US dollars with a 29% compound annual growth rate. Its major value proposition is the convergence of the low price of beacons at 10 US dollars a unit (85% lower than 5G tags) with the broad coverage characteristic of gateways, transforming the asset management paradigm in industries such as logistics and manufacturing.