Reference
Glossary
A plain-language dictionary of the wireless and signal-processing terms used across the Wireless Bobulator documentation.
The wireless and signal-processing vocabulary used across this site, defined in one line each. If a spec or architecture page used a term you didn’t recognize, it’s probably here.
Radio & wireless
BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) — short-range, low-power 2.4 GHz radio for beacons, wearables, and sensors. The WB-1 runs BLE 5.3.
Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) — high-throughput 2.4/5 GHz wireless; the WB-1 uses it for the low-latency, high-bandwidth path and the building network.
LoRa — long-range, low-rate sub-GHz radio (868/915 MHz) that trades bandwidth for kilometres of reach; ideal for far-flung or outdoor sensors.
RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) — how strong a received radio signal is, reported per channel in the dashboard to spot weak links.
dBm (decibel-milliwatts) — absolute RF power on a log scale. 0 dBm = 1 mW; TX power is positive, RX sensitivity is a large negative number.
RX sensitivity — the weakest signal a radio can still decode. −137 dBm (LoRa) is far more sensitive than −97 dBm (BLE), which is why LoRa reaches farther.
LOS (Line of Sight) — an unobstructed path between antennas. Range figures assume LOS; walls and metal cut it roughly in half.
Mesh — a topology where devices relay for each other and share state, so there’s no single point of failure. See topologies.
Signals & compute
ADC (Analog-to-Digital Converter) — turns a continuous analog reading (0–10V, 4–20mA) into a number the engine can use.
GPIO (General-Purpose I/O) — generic digital pins for simple on/off sensors and actuators.
I²C / SPI / UART — the three common serial buses for talking to sensor chips; the WB-1 speaks all three on its input channels.
Sensor fusion — combining several inputs into one higher-confidence reading, with weighting per source. The core job of the Bobulation Engine.
Latency — the time from a sensor event to the resulting broadcast. The WB-1 guarantees under 8 ms, worst case.
Determinism — the property that the same inputs always produce the same decision in the same time. Essential for safety interlocks.
SoC (System on a Chip) — a single chip integrating CPU, memory, and peripherals. The WB-1 pairs a Cortex-M7 SoC with an ESP32.
TFLite (TensorFlow Lite) Micro — a runtime for small ML models on microcontrollers; powers the WB-1’s optional on-device ML.
OTA (Over-the-Air update) — pushing new firmware wirelessly. The WB-1 uses signed images with A/B partitions and auto-rollback.
NDJSON (Newline-Delimited JSON) — one JSON object per line; the format of the hash-chained audit log.
Missing a term? Tell us and we’ll add it.