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Since the introduction of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology, MOKO SMART has been actively involved in BLE beacon and gateway hardware development, and over the years, we’ve expanded our expertise to better serve beacon-based complex tasks, including indoor navigation.
This guide isn’t just a theoretical look at what beacon-based navigation could do. Instead, I’ll walk you through how it actually works, implementation challenges, and ways MOKO beacons work with our partners’ software platform to deliver reliable off-the-shelf navigation solutions for real-world spaces. Hoping it will become the basis for your Bluetooth beacon indoor navigation system.
The transition from outdoor to indoor navigation
As is well known, GPS performs well in open outdoor navigation, such as guiding someone to a stadium or following walking directions through a city. In these cases, even a 20-30m error is tolerable. But once indoors, navigating terminals in shopping malls or airport complexes, such inaccuracies become a problem. GPS just isn’t built for indoor environments, and it offers only general location data inside buildings due to signal attenuation and multipath effects. At best, it can identify a building or block, but not specific rooms, hallways, or floors.
That’s where Indoor Positioning Systems (IPS) come in. Using technologies such as WiFi, Bluetooth Beacons, and UWB, IPS can deliver reliable positioning and navigation in spaces where GPS signals fail. Among them, Bluetooth beacons are widely adopted due to their low-cost investment and high-quality results. The two main protocols are Apple’s iBeacon and Google’s Eddystone. A bit different in format, but they serve the same goal: making indoor spaces navigable.
The Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation (IPIN) market was valued at $13.74 billion in 2024, and is expected to grow to $46.50 billion by 2030. It’s just the need in indoor wayfinding that driving change to more investment in this field.
How Bluetooth beacon navigation works
Installed in key locations throughout the building, Bluetooth beacons are small radio transmitters sending out periodic BLE signals. These signals, typically containing unique IDs, are picked up by nearby mobile devices and then sent to the navigation engine. From there, the navigation engine can calculate where the device is within those beacons, display the position on a map, and provide turn-by-turn directions to the destination.
An indoor navigation system using beacons mainly involves three major stages:
Indoor positioning – determine the user’s current position, or blue dots
Distance calculation – interpreting signal strength to calculate distance (usually the user’s location and the destination) based on RSSI or triangulation
Guidance – laying a route and guiding the user via a visual interface, such as a map or AR overlay
The last stage depends on your chosen navigation engine, but the first two components form the foundation of any beacon-based system.
You can find an experience of how BLE beacon navigation works in the MOKO x Navigine Indoor Navigation Kit. The kit includes 10 of our L01 Wayfinding Beacon and Navigine Indoor Navigation Mobile App. Similar beacon-based navigation systems can be built using various configurations and models of our hardware. Relying on the power of Bluetooth 5.0 technology and advanced signal processing, our beacons make navigation easier due to their superior signal stability and battery life.
Overview of indoor navigation technologies
With indoor navigation useful across many sectors, there are several technologies to choose from. In this section, I list the primary options with their pros and cons, including the most popular Bluetooth beacons, followed by WiFi, and UWB. Let’s consider them in more detail, and with a focus on our specialty: Bluetooth beacons.
WiFi
Wi-Fi-based indoor navigation technologies include WiFi positioning and WiFi RTT. In WiFi positioning, an indoor navigation app on your smartphone calculates location using RSS to existing access points. Wi-Fi RTT uses Time-of-Flight (ToF) to measure the distance. You need access to the existing WiFi infrastructure and store the location of each access point to calculate user location.
The strength of WiFi positioning is that it utilizes existing infrastructure that provides more cost-effective deployment. Navigation with WiFi doesn’t require additional hardware installation and is not so dependent on specialized equipment. In this way, we can provide positioning using the WiFi networks that are already available or allow users to leverage existing wireless infrastructure.
The accuracy of WiFi positioning can be within 3-15 meters, which is sufficient, for instance, to guide the user to the correct floor in a building.
UWB
Just as we search for better technology, UWB-based indoor positioning and navigation can determine location with exceptional precision down to centimeters. One of the most popular applications of UWB is used in high-accuracy industrial tracking.
However, using UWB isn’t so easy for widespread deployment. You’ll need to purchase expensive UWB anchor hardware and ensure precise synchronization throughout the system. You may face challenges with high implementation costs (e.g. specialized equipment is expensive, installation requires technical expertise, power consumption is higher, etc).
Bluetooth Beacon
Indoor positioning with Bluetooth beacons represents the most balanced approach for most indoor navigation applications. Beacons come in a variety of shapes and sizes, yet they generally blend into the surroundings quite easily.
The key advantage of Bluetooth beacons is that it is a fairly mature technology providing more accuracy than GPS and WiFi while being cost-effective. In typical indoor wayfinding setups, beacons can deliver positioning accuracy within 5 meters, and tighter deployments can push that even further. Beacon navigation doesn’t rely on cameras or WiFi networks—it mainly depends on beacon anchors. In this way, we can provide consistent positioning even if GPS signals are not available or allow users to find their way with just their phones.
Which beacon or anchor to choose?
A beacon or anchor is a fixed device that detects and measures a tag’s position. Each one needs to be configured with a unique identifier and optimal broadcasting parameters, otherwise, the system may experience conflicts in position calculations. How many beacons a device should detect depends on the setup density and surrounding conditions. In general, picking up 3–4 beacons at once gives good triangulation accuracy.
The more sophisticated beacon deployment with proper model selection, the higher the positioning accuracy will be for mobile applications.
For our beacon system to perform well, choosing the right beacon model for your environment is essential. Here are some of our navigation beacons and anchors:
- H2 Navigation Beacon: cost-effective, white aesthetic design
- L01 Wayfinding Anchor: rotating battery design, 8+ years battery
- L03 Navigation Anchor: 350m range, 10+ years battery, fast to deploy
- L04 Anchor Pro: 10+ years battery, long range, optional temperature sensor
- L05 USB Beacon: plug and play, powered directly via USB
How to deploy a beacon-based navigation system
Once you have chosen our beacon hardware, it is time to move directly to deployment tasks. Let’s move to the next steps in more detail.
Step 1: Create an indoor site survey
First, you need to accurately survey the environment where beacons will be deployed. The number of BLE beacons required for an indoor positioning system depends on the structure and size of the building.
A detailed deployment strategy is then created to identify optimal transmitter positions for achieving the best location accuracy results.
This stage involves determining beacon spacing, locations, and signal coverage zones with special attention to navigation decision points like entrances, intersections, and key destinations.
Step 2: Strategic beacon placement planning
Placement should cover all areas of the premises with appropriate density. It’s better to place beacons at consistent heights (typically 2-3 meters above floor level):
– One beacon every 10-15 meters in corridors
– Additional beacons at intersections and entrances
– Avoiding signal interference sources like metal surfaces and electronic equipment
To fix our beacons in place, strong adhesive double-sided tape or mounting brackets are used, which also allows for uncomplicated deinstallation if needed. Due to compact design, beacons can easily blend into their surroundings and their colors are often customized to prevent any disruption with the building’s overall aesthetic.
Step 3: Configure beacon parameters for optimal performance
With the hardware deployed and positions mapped, we can now configure beacon broadcasting settings and optimize signal parameters for your specific environment.
One of the main challenges to overcome is signal interference. Our beacons broadcast in the 2.4GHz band which is shared with WiFi and other wireless devices. It is essential to ensure beacon coverage does not overlap too much, as it can cause navigation confusion. In general, picking up 3–4 beacons at once gives good triangulation accuracy.
If you’re looking to build a scalable solution across multiple facilities, you will have to think about gateway connectivity, data management, and system monitoring. In our experience, an enterprise-scale beacon deployment can take 6-12 months from planning to full operation (requiring significant hardware procurement and installation coordination).
Step 4: Software integration: Navigine’s Platform approach
While the hardware forms the physical infrastructure, software platforms like Navigine transform beacon signals into usable navigation experiences.
With the whole beacon system in place, our beacons send out their signals continuously. The smartphone calculates its position by analyzing the signal strengths from multiple beacons, allowing the user to pinpoint themselves on the map within the navigation app. The location is displayed in real-time as a blue dot and offers improved orientation and mobile navigation inside the building.
Step 4: Software integration: Navigine’s Platform approach
While the hardware forms the physical infrastructure, software platforms like Navigine transform beacon signals into usable navigation experiences.
Common use cases with BLE beacon indoor navigation
BLE beacon indoor navigation has found popular application in many environments. The most common ones include:
Airports and transportation hubs. Thanks to the Bluetooth beacon navigation system, passengers can easily orient in large terminals, find the necessary gates, check-in counters, and get real-time information on flight schedules.
Hospitals and healthcare facilities. BLE beacons ensure convenient navigation for patients and visitors inside big hospitals or medical institutions. Using the mobile applications, patients can easily find the routes or the necessary treatment rooms.
Shopping malls and retail. Beacon location navigation allows for optimizing customer experience and monitoring foot traffic patterns. Any shopper can receive personalized offers and search directions to specific stores displayed in the mobile application at any time.
Museums and exhibitions. Bluetooth beacons can be placed near important artworks and exhibits. When visitors approach the defined zone, they can receive detailed information, audio guides, or interactive content about the displayed pieces.
Why choose MOKO beacons for navigation solutions
Providing hardware for indoor navigation solutions requires years of experience, as each project is unique and hardware must meet specific business needs. MOKO Bluetooth beacons, combined with strategic deployment, give access to more accurate and reliable navigation experiences.
Unsure which hardware solution benefits your business most? Contact our technical team today, and we’ll analyze your needs, create a clear hardware vision for your navigation system, and supply the right devices. MOKO SMART builds long-term customer relationships and serves as your reliable hardware partner for current and future projects.
Ready to launch your beacon-based indoor navigation project? Contact us to get started!
