Bluetooth Mesh - the development of data transfer standard for IoT
The Bluetooth SIG group of companies, which controls the development of Bluetooth technologies, announced on July 18 that the Bluetooth standard from now on supports the functionality of mesh networks. This news was especially warmly received by enthusiasts of the IoT concept.
/ Flickr / jct 600 / cc
The current version of the Bluetooth standard, more than 10 years known as the leading low-power wireless communication technology, is today Bluetooth 5.0. Compared with its predecessor - 4.2 - it provides four times more coverage, double the speed and increased eight times the width of the communication channel.
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And now, when Bluetooth is able to connect devices in the whole building, the standard has acquired a new way of making connections. Mesh networks, or otherwise mesh networks, are decentralized networks based on a number of interconnecting devices. Each of the nodes in them acts as a switch. The concept is based on the form of message retransmission, ready for scalability by adding new nodes - devices.
This approach is used by Google Wi-Fi technology, which builds a mesh network across the building. To cover areas that remain outside the traditional Wi-Fi, the only router on the network is replaced by several points acting as routers. If we talk about the standard Bluetooth, such points are the connected devices.
Bluetooth mesh networks are based on the Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) protocol and are compatible with devices that support the basic specifications of version 4.0 and higher.
To create network products with Bluetooth, you need compatible hardware and software. In other words, any device (including smartphones and tablets) that supports Bluetooth LE is likely to be used in the mesh network after software updates. For a process called initialization, you need an application running on a smartphone, tablet, or computer with Bluetooth. New devices, whether for home appliances, industrial sensors or security cameras, will need to download encryption keys in order to join the network as a node.
Regarding specific devices that can participate in the deployment of mesh networks using the Bluetooth protocol, it is already known that they will be devices equipped with all microprocessors of future generations of Qualcomm that support Bluetooth LE starting from QCA4020 and QCA4024. This became known from the official statement of the manufacturer Qualcomm on the day of the announcement of the Bluetooth SIG. QCA4020 and QCA4024 are used to create intelligent home or industrial devices: drones, robots, and so on.
It is known that the mesh-functionality was originally laid in the standard Bluetooth 5.0 as a platform for the deployment of scalable smart systems. In a domestic scenario, the concept can be applied as follows: when a user enters a home, input data from sensors at the same time are transmitted simultaneously to turn on the light sources and the heating system.
The same model is suitable for building automation and other IoT solutions, where tens, hundreds or thousands of devices must interoperate reliably.
Mesh networks for IoT allow devices to share common data across the enterprise. For example, the security system can communicate with a fire sensor or camera directly using Bluetooth without the need to exchange data via a wired or Wi-Fi connection via a central router.
“Adding a mesh topology to the Bluetooth standard will open up significant opportunities for building automation and bring with it a new wave of innovation in a variety of IoT applications,” commented the innovation Bob Morris, vice president of marketing for Wireless Business Unit, ARM.
Bluetooth mesh networks will play a special role in the industrial IoT (IIoT) segment. Devices such as robots and connected devices, equipped with sensors, produce a huge amount of data, and it is difficult to transmit them using standards and protocols of the LoRaWan or Narrowband-IoT type. At the same time, Bluetooth can process more data than these protocols, and now, when the network can be expanded with additional nodes, the solution can become a tool for combining, for example, all the equipment in a specific production.
In light of the frequent attacks on Bluetooth SIG IoT devices, we also had to focus on the security of mesh networks, which also allows us to consider them as the main platform of smart cities. All messages sent via Bluetooth networks will be encrypted and authenticated using three types of keys.
One of the important advantages of the new Bluetooth SIG networks is the proven global interoperability that enables products from different vendors to work together.
According to Andrew Zignani, a senior analyst at ABI Research, the introduction of the mesh network will help Bluetooth overcome a number of existing limitations on the range and size of the network.
/ Flickr / skys the limit2 / CC
“The cellular topology is a new stage in the development of Bluetooth and will be an important factor in the transition from a personal network and interfacing technology to a more scalable, reliable and energy-efficient IoT connection with the ability to connect to things around us,” he said.
It is important that the introduction of mesh-functionality in the Bluetooth-network occurs at the moment of significant growth in the industry - ABI Research expects that by 2021 48 billion IoT-compatible devices will be installed, of which almost a third will support Bluetooth. BI Intelligence believes that international manufacturers will spend $ 267 billion on IoT solutions by 2020 and install over 24 billion IoT devices.
Bluetooth Special Interest Group was founded in 1998. It includes Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Toshiba and Nokia. Later, the list of participants was replenished with companies such as Lenovo, Microsoft and Apple. The Bluetooth SIG is responsible for overseeing the development of Bluetooth standards and the licensing of technology and brand manufacturers.
PS Related materials from our blog:
/ Flickr / jct 600 / ccThe current version of the Bluetooth standard, more than 10 years known as the leading low-power wireless communication technology, is today Bluetooth 5.0. Compared with its predecessor - 4.2 - it provides four times more coverage, double the speed and increased eight times the width of the communication channel.
')
And now, when Bluetooth is able to connect devices in the whole building, the standard has acquired a new way of making connections. Mesh networks, or otherwise mesh networks, are decentralized networks based on a number of interconnecting devices. Each of the nodes in them acts as a switch. The concept is based on the form of message retransmission, ready for scalability by adding new nodes - devices.
This approach is used by Google Wi-Fi technology, which builds a mesh network across the building. To cover areas that remain outside the traditional Wi-Fi, the only router on the network is replaced by several points acting as routers. If we talk about the standard Bluetooth, such points are the connected devices.
Bluetooth mesh networks are based on the Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) protocol and are compatible with devices that support the basic specifications of version 4.0 and higher.
To create network products with Bluetooth, you need compatible hardware and software. In other words, any device (including smartphones and tablets) that supports Bluetooth LE is likely to be used in the mesh network after software updates. For a process called initialization, you need an application running on a smartphone, tablet, or computer with Bluetooth. New devices, whether for home appliances, industrial sensors or security cameras, will need to download encryption keys in order to join the network as a node.
Regarding specific devices that can participate in the deployment of mesh networks using the Bluetooth protocol, it is already known that they will be devices equipped with all microprocessors of future generations of Qualcomm that support Bluetooth LE starting from QCA4020 and QCA4024. This became known from the official statement of the manufacturer Qualcomm on the day of the announcement of the Bluetooth SIG. QCA4020 and QCA4024 are used to create intelligent home or industrial devices: drones, robots, and so on.
Bluetooth Mesh and Internet of Things
It is known that the mesh-functionality was originally laid in the standard Bluetooth 5.0 as a platform for the deployment of scalable smart systems. In a domestic scenario, the concept can be applied as follows: when a user enters a home, input data from sensors at the same time are transmitted simultaneously to turn on the light sources and the heating system.
The same model is suitable for building automation and other IoT solutions, where tens, hundreds or thousands of devices must interoperate reliably.
Mesh networks for IoT allow devices to share common data across the enterprise. For example, the security system can communicate with a fire sensor or camera directly using Bluetooth without the need to exchange data via a wired or Wi-Fi connection via a central router.
“Adding a mesh topology to the Bluetooth standard will open up significant opportunities for building automation and bring with it a new wave of innovation in a variety of IoT applications,” commented the innovation Bob Morris, vice president of marketing for Wireless Business Unit, ARM.
Bluetooth mesh networks will play a special role in the industrial IoT (IIoT) segment. Devices such as robots and connected devices, equipped with sensors, produce a huge amount of data, and it is difficult to transmit them using standards and protocols of the LoRaWan or Narrowband-IoT type. At the same time, Bluetooth can process more data than these protocols, and now, when the network can be expanded with additional nodes, the solution can become a tool for combining, for example, all the equipment in a specific production.
In light of the frequent attacks on Bluetooth SIG IoT devices, we also had to focus on the security of mesh networks, which also allows us to consider them as the main platform of smart cities. All messages sent via Bluetooth networks will be encrypted and authenticated using three types of keys.
One of the important advantages of the new Bluetooth SIG networks is the proven global interoperability that enables products from different vendors to work together.
According to Andrew Zignani, a senior analyst at ABI Research, the introduction of the mesh network will help Bluetooth overcome a number of existing limitations on the range and size of the network.
/ Flickr / skys the limit2 / CC“The cellular topology is a new stage in the development of Bluetooth and will be an important factor in the transition from a personal network and interfacing technology to a more scalable, reliable and energy-efficient IoT connection with the ability to connect to things around us,” he said.
It is important that the introduction of mesh-functionality in the Bluetooth-network occurs at the moment of significant growth in the industry - ABI Research expects that by 2021 48 billion IoT-compatible devices will be installed, of which almost a third will support Bluetooth. BI Intelligence believes that international manufacturers will spend $ 267 billion on IoT solutions by 2020 and install over 24 billion IoT devices.
About Bluetooth SIG
Bluetooth Special Interest Group was founded in 1998. It includes Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Toshiba and Nokia. Later, the list of participants was replenished with companies such as Lenovo, Microsoft and Apple. The Bluetooth SIG is responsible for overseeing the development of Bluetooth standards and the licensing of technology and brand manufacturers.
PS Related materials from our blog:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/333998/
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