Enabling BLE Devices and Gateways with FPGAs
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has quietly become one of the most widely used technologies for wirelessly connecting devices and many companies today want to build BLE-powered devices—whether it’s a sensor sending data to the cloud, a wearable monitoring your heart rate, or a gateway collecting information from multiple BLE nodes and pushing it to a wired network. BLE devices play a crucial role in adding wireless flexibility to industrial, automotive, and smart manufacturing environments. But these environments still rely heavily on wired protocols—Ethernet for factory networks, CAN for vehicles, and UART for industrial controllers
The challenge is making these wireless BLE devices communicate seamlessly with wired systems in real time. BLE was not originally designed for this. Most BLE solutions connect to smartphones or tablets, not directly to embedded wired protocols.
That’s why bridging these two worlds—wireless BLE and wired networks—is critical. And this is where FPGAs make all the difference, enabling real-time, reliable communication across protocols.
Why FPGAs make sense for BLE Devices and Gateways?
Most processors handle one task at a time, even those with multiple cores, and rely on software to manage what happens next. But FPGAs work differently. They process tasks in parallel, right at the hardware level. This means they can take BLE data, convert it into another protocol, and send it out. All in real-time, without waiting for software instructions.
That speed matters, especially in critical situations where even a tiny delay can cause problems.
Picture a factory floor where a BLE sensor suddenly detects a temperature spike. Instead of waiting for a microcontroller to process the data and pass it along over Ethernet, an FPGA can do the whole job instantly in hardware. No waiting, no random delays, just immediate action.
Or think about a car. If a BLE-based diagnostic tool sends a message to the ECU, the FPGA can instantly translate that BLE message into a CAN-FD signal. The response happens in real time, ensuring the vehicle’s systems react without delay.
What makes FPGAs truly powerful is their flexibility. They can be customized to support specific BLE profiles, encryption methods, and wired protocols like CAN-FD, Ethernet, or UART.
As technology advances, whether through BLE Mesh or updated CAN and Ethernet standards. There is no need to replace the hardware; the FPGA can be reprogrammed to support the latest features, ensuring long-term adaptability and future-proofing the device.
FPGA-Based BLE Interface
How do FPGAs handle the protocol bridging challenge?
BLE is asynchronous and designed for wireless devices that might wake up occasionally. Wired protocols like CAN and Ethernet, on the other hand, expect predictable timing and continuous communication. Bridging these two worlds requires careful timing management, buffering, and precise protocol translation.
FPGAs excel at this because they handle these processes in parallel. They can manage incoming BLE packets, translate them into CAN, UART, or Ethernet frames, and transmit the data seamlessly to the appropriate wired systems. FPGAs also manage critical interface tasks such as clock domain crossing and buffering, ensuring that differences in communication speeds between BLE and wired protocols do not result in data loss or transmission errors.
And when security is a concern, FPGAs can integrate encryption engines to secure BLE communication, verifying commands before they are passed on to wired systems.
Real-world use cases across industries
- Automotive: FPGA-powered BLE gateways enable wireless communication between diagnostic tools or mobile apps and a vehicle’s ECUs over CAN-FD. This reduces the need for complex wiring in connected vehicles and simplifies service and maintenance processes.
- Industrial automation: BLE sensors continuously monitor machine conditions, such as temperature and vibration. FPGA-based gateways convert this sensor data into Ethernet packets in real time, delivering it to predictive maintenance systems that help prevent equipment failures and unplanned downtime.
- Healthcare: Wearable devices equipped with FPGAs securely process patient data and transmit it over BLE. FPGA gateways then relay this data over Ethernet to hospital systems, ensuring real-time patient monitoring while maintaining data privacy and security.
- Smart homes and buildings: BLE sensors and devices connect to FPGA gateways, which translate wireless signals into wired protocols for building management systems. This enables smarter energy optimization, automated security, and seamless control of connected devices.
The business advantage
FPGAs help create smarter, more cost-effective products by combining multiple functions into a single chip. They reduce component count, lowering the bill of materials (BOM), saving space, and simplifying product design.
More importantly, FPGAs offer long-term flexibility, allowing businesses to reprogram devices to support new standards, protocols, and security features. With Over-the-Air (OTA) updates, both firmware and hardware-level changes can be deployed to products in the field, eliminating costly redesigns and manual servicing.
The same FPGA-based architecture can be applied across industries, whether powering connected cars, industrial IoT systems, or wearable devices. This reuse accelerates development, reduces costs, and speeds up time-to-market.
In short, FPGAs enable businesses to build flexible, scalable BLE solutions that are easier to manage and better equipped for the rapidly changing demands of today’s markets.
By adopting an FPGA-based approach, businesses can future-proof their BLE products and simplify integration with a wide range of wired and wireless protocols. This technical flexibility and performance optimization translate into products that respond faster, operate more reliably, and integrate more smoothly into users’ environments. This not only streamlines product development but also enhances the overall user experience. FPGAs are driving the next generation of real-time BLE solutions, enabling smarter, adaptable, and connected devices for a wide range of industries.
MosChip® provides end-to-end FPGA design and integration services, helping businesses unlock the full potential of their connected solutions, including BLE, Zigbee, Wi-Fi enabled products. With deep expertise in custom FPGA architectures, IP integration/porting, high-speed interfaces, hardware design & systems engineering, and protocol bridging, MosChip enables OEMs & tech innovators to build smart, connected, and future-ready solutions. It has experience in developing platforms for everything from wearables and smart audio hubs to automotive IVI, industrial gateways, and vision-based surveillance systems, home automation – each with its own set of performance, security, and field constraints.
