Bluetooth SIG announces bluetooth mesh network

On Habré there was already an article with this announcement , but the author decided to describe in more detail the concept and architecture of the bluetooth network.

At first there was a desire in one article to describe both the overview and the basic components of the network and architecture, but after writing a review, the author realized that the reader would be tired. Therefore, there will be 2 more articles: "Basic concepts of the bluetooth-mesh network" and "Architecture of the bluetooth-mesh network".

In the world of technology, the race continues for the first place in uniting all things around us using wireless communication protocols, the main feature of which is low power consumption.
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At a time when the Wi-Fi alliance is developing the 802.11ah standard, and the Telecom consortium has the 5G standard, which will include a low-power protocol, the Bluetooth SIG announced a bluetooth network using BLE technology (Bluetooth Low Energy). We all know that BLE is just a technology with low power consumption and, given its other possibilities, the Bluetooth SIG ultimately offers an industrial-level solution. Yes, exactly: “Industrial-grade Solution” .

Key components of this network, according to the Bluetooth SIG, are:
- reliability;
- scalability;
- security.

In this article we will briefly review the above components.

Key components

Reliability

As is known, the reliability of a network is assessed, including its ability to deliver messages from one device to another. To ensure uninterrupted message delivery, the network uses 2 types of communication.

• Peer-to-Peer : A peer -to- peer network, described in the technology specification and called “piconet”, through which all network nodes can connect to each other directly without additional special nodes with a hub or router function. That, in turn, saves the network from points of failure.
  
  
• Multipath (message relay) : the relayed architecture of a controlled message flow using multiple routes. In conjunction with ease of deployment and management, is a reliable way to deliver these messages.

Scalability

The Bluetooth mesh allows thousands of devices to interact with each other while meeting commercial and industrial performance requirements. What are these requirements?

• A large number of nodes : the specification shows support for up to 32,000 network nodes. Currently, networks have already been deployed that contain more than 1,000 nodes. A typical example of such a network is an environment in which a large number of lighting devices are used. In such an environment, the Bluetooth mesh scales quickly, as it is specifically designed for this purpose.
  
  
• Speed : the small size of a bluetooth package along with a high-speed radio channel ensures very fast messaging. In the case of enterprise lighting, this allows, for example, one switch to simultaneously control hundreds of lighting fixtures.
  
  
• Multicast : The managed message flow relay architecture, combined with the ability to subscribe / provide group messaging, makes the network unique to handle large amounts of multicast message data. Industrial lighting is a great example of a deployment scenario in which a bluetooth mesh is the perfect solution.

Security

The Bluetooth mesh uses a security architecture that addresses the security concerns of companies deploying large-scale networks of wireless devices.

• Management layer : devices added to the network can use 256-bit elliptical cryptography algorithms using out-of-band authentication. All communication on the network is protected by an AES-CCM encryption algorithm with a 128-bit key. This ensures that all messages on the network are encrypted and authenticated.
  
  
• Multi-layered : encryption and authentication are implemented at two levels: network and application. All nodes in the network can relay messages at the network level, without knowing its contents. To ensure complete security when delivering a message from the sender to the recipient, the message content is additionally encrypted with a separate application key.
  
  
• Confidentiality : each network packet is processed to remove any identifying information. This does not allow others to track network devices, especially when these devices move within the range of other networks.

In the next article we will look at basic network concepts.

Thanks for attention.