What is Bluetooth Mesh Networking and How It Works?
Bluetooth SIG, the organisation that oversees the evolution of Bluetooth standards, has just released the specifications for Bluetooth mesh – a mesh networking structure for Bluetooth LE devices that is believed to exist a more reliable and scalable solution for diverse IoT (Internet of Things) and home automation devices that need depression-energy networking applied science to interact and exchange information amid themselves. Co-ordinate to the Bluetooth SIG, the technology is already available for employ in devices using at least Bluetooth v4.0 and college, so you tin can expect it to come to a device most you sooner rather than subsequently. That beingness the example, let's take a more detailed wait at Bluetooth Mesh Networking and what it represents for mainstream consumers like you and I.
To sympathise what Bluetooth Mesh Networking is and how information technology will benefit consumers going forwards, let'south showtime take a await at what the mesh networking technology is in the get-go place.
What is Mesh Networking and How it Works?
A mesh network is a type of network topology, either wired or wireless, where each and every unmarried node is continued with one another, and relay data for the network, bringing the promise of seamless connectivity into reality. While it is a relatively new phenomenon in the consumer technology space, it has actually been around for a pretty long time, used mostly for commercial applications by the healthcare sector and past the military up until at present. However, the engineering is expected to go more popular in the coming days, as it will be a crucial ingredient for IoT applications, similar beaconing, industrial automation and smart domicile devices.
The WiFi Alliance (WFA) has really taken the lead in bringing the technology to the consumer space, with devices like Google Home, Google WiFi and Google OnHub, all supporting WiFi Mesh. So how practise they really work? Mesh networking devices actually include several nodes, one of which typically acts as the gateway for your internet connection. Instead of a traditional network where each node communicates with a unmarried access point (often referred to as a 'Hotspot'), all nodes in a mesh network communicate with one another, amplifying the signal and extending its range. In theory, the range can be extended infinitely, and is but limited past the number of devices in your network.
While inexpensive range extenders also manage to practice much of what expensive mesh networking kits promise, the one surface area where mesh kits accept traditional range extenders beat out is in terms of speed. While mesh networking doesn't typically result in any significant deterioration in network speed, range extenders, as nosotros all know, accept a nasty addiction of slowing down connections. With mesh networking promising to evangelize seamless connectivity across large areas, the days of scouring for 'hotspots' may well be over, as wireless mesh networks may very well exist used to connect unabridged cities using existing technology at some stage in the non-and so-distant future.
Now that nosotros've seen how WiFi mesh is helping consumers get rid of those annoying 'expressionless-zones' and become seamless internet connectivity across every nook and corner of their homes, it is important to realize that WiFi is not the only wireless technology that tin can have its own mesh network. Philips, for one, is already using an IEEE 802.fifteen.iv-based specification called 'ZigBee' for its pop 'Hue' line of smart lighting products, and with the Bluetooth SIG now releasing its ain specifications for Bluetooth mesh, an interesting contest between the dissimilar platforms may well be on the cards in going forward.
What is Bluetooth Mesh Networking and How Volition it Meliorate Connectivity?
Simply put, Bluetooth mesh is basically any mesh network that uses Bluetooth technology to connect devices. Information technology operates on Bluetooth LE (Low Energy) and is compatible with Bluetooth v4.0 and above. Having said that, not all products conforming to those standards will actually be compatible, because, according to a press release by Bluetooth earlier this week, "only products designed to be upgradable (via a firmware upgrade) can exist enhanced … to support Bluetooth Mesh". The amount of memory available in your Bluetooth chip is also another thing that will decide whether your device volition be compatible with the engineering science or not.
Bluetooth SIG has been working towards making its technology better suited for IoT applications, which is why many industry observers found it a bit surprising when the system appear the Bluetooth 5 standard last December without a discussion on mesh networking. The emergence of IoT meant that the absence of mesh networking had started to become a critical problem for Bluetooth as a wireless connectivity selection. At present that mesh networking is officially a part of Bluetooth, the applied science is expected to bring greater range, faster data transfer and interoperability with other technologies.
Increased range, in item, should aid in the adoption of Bluetooth in home automation environments, so that devices with Bluetooth v4.0 and above volition able to connect with each other not only within a single building, merely also across multiple buildings. Information technology could also potentially give Bluetooth beaconing the push information technology needed, considering the applied science hasn't really taken off in any meaningful way, even though information technology was announced way dorsum in 2013. Bluetooth beaconing, in case you're wondering, allows Bluetooth-enabled devices to interact with one another, and can be used for messaging, tracking and locating Bluetooth devices within a given expanse without the need for pairing.
Apart from beaconing, Bluetooth mesh is likewise expected to help the robotics industry, where AI-based robots will able able to communicate with one another via Bluetooth mesh. The applied science is is as well expected to be put to apply in a variety of other applications, including energy management, smart city applications, sensor networks, industrial automation and IIoT (Industrial Net of Things). Bluetooth SIG claims that the technology has already seen involvement from the home and office automation market, especially from smart lite vendors.
Is Bluetooth Mesh Networking Secure?
In low-cal of the contempo Mirai and BrickerBot attacks on smart devices, privacy and security concerns are the first foremost things on many of our minds when information technology comes to the IoT. So is Bluetooth mesh networking secure, or are there gaping security loopholes that can exist exploited by hackers and cyber-criminals? According to the Bluetooth SIG, the technology uses "256-scrap elliptic curves and out-of-band authentication" to add together devices to the network, and all advice inside the network is encrypted via 128-bit AES-CCM keys and authenticated with 64-bit authentication (that can exist increased to up to 1088-bit) to foreclose brute-force attacks. What'due south more, encryption and authentication are practical at the network layer as well as the awarding layer, and so the node (devices) that grade a network can but relay encrypted content that can merely be deciphered using a split up application key.
To prevent Replay Attacks, Bluetooth SIG has mandated that every bulletin will have fresh sequence numbers, while every packet sent will exist obfuscated, which should protect your identity fifty-fifty when somebody is resorting to packet sniffing. ECDH applied science is used to forestall Man-in-the-Eye (MITM) attacks, while trashcan attacks are prevented using a cardinal-refresh procedure to blacklist all removed devices. Bluetooth SIG also says that there are procedures in place to prevent 'Physically insecure device attacks' and 'Company attacks'.
Will Bluetooth Mesh Networking Ensue Whatever Firsthand Benefits To The End-User?
Even as Bluetooth mesh networks are expected to go more common in the days to come, it is of import to realize that about of the use cases volition be commercial in nature, so if you're expecting to exist able to stream music to all Bluetooth speakers in your firm using the technology, you can put an end to that thought right now. That'south because those devices use either Basic Charge per unit or Enhanced Data Rate technologies, which are designed for continuous wireless connections, and are optimized for audio streaming.
Mesh networking, however, uses Bluetooth LE that's designed specifically for short-burst wireless connections and are primed for networking with multiple devices. While that should put a swift end to your grand dreams about using Bluetooth mesh on a daily basis at domicile, the good thing almost it is that cheers to the unlike standards used by Bluetooth speakers and Bluetooth mesh, you will exist able to continue streaming music and utilize the Bluetooth connections on your phone, laptop or smartwatch for anything, even in the heart of a Bluetooth mesh network.
When Can We Expect Bluetooth Mesh Networking To Be Rolled Out Commercially?
Technically, Bluetooth mesh networking has already been rolled out, and manufacturers can qualify their devices with Bluetooth SIG. However, the process of qualifying a device has to start from scratch, so in order to be able to annals a product, it will either have to exist a new one, or something that'southward been modified specifically for the purpose. What it basically ways, is that even if you do take a product that is compatible with Bluetooth mesh from the technological point-of-view, it withal can't be qualified for the standard every bit things stand up correct at present, although, they may still exist able to become a part of a mesh network going forward.
SEE As well: What is Bluetooth v? Everything You Demand to Know
The Futurity of Bluetooth Mesh Networking
We are only in the nascent stages of the impending IoT revolution and most of the developments in the sector are still in an experimental phase for the most part. What the time to come holds, nobody really tin can say for certain, merely chances are, the background for a more than connected future are being laid by the today'south researchers, who're seeing how far they tin can push the envelop with new technology. That beingness the example, Bluetooth mesh networking may anytime become the preeminent technology that connects non just homes and offices, but entire smart cities that are expected to get commonplace before the end of this century.
And then now that you've gathered quite a scrap of info about Bluetooth mesh, what do you recall lies in its time to come? Tin can it compete with relatively more established wireless mesh technologies similar ZigBee? Do let us know in the comments section beneath.
Source: https://beebom.com/what-is-bluetooth-mesh-networking/
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