Beacons display sporadic distances when there are 3+ beacons within 1000sqft area

BLE Beacons
1

We created an iOS app using iOS sdk to essentially detect the presence of a beacon proximity and call some APIs (when near and when out of range). However, we noticed that this works well in a 1000sqft room when there are only 2 beacons present. When we have 3 or more, the proximity ranges jumps randomly. For example, I could be in near proximity but after 8-10 seconds of staying there, it jumps to out of range and then back again.

We tried changing the transmit power, broadcast interval and also power mode many times. While there are some improvements when limiting transmit power and increasing broadcast interval, the jumpy distance readings still happen with 3+ beacons. Any suggestions?

2

Interesting. What device and iOS version are you testing with? Any chance you could try with another device? It’d be a bit silly to assume your device starts freaking out with more than 2 beacons in range … but it sounds a bit like it’s the case?

Also, note that some jumpiness in the proximity estimations is usually to be expected—that’s the inherent nature of Bluetooth radio signal. Decreasing the interval (so that the beacon broadcasts more often = provides more data points for proximity estimation) should help. Sometimes, increasing the power can also help, as it makes the signal stronger = more stable.