Bluetooth SIG announces bluetooth mesh network

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    There was already an article on Habré with this announcement , but the author decided to describe in more detail the concept and architecture of the bluetooth-mesh 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 the review, the author realized that the reader would get tired. Therefore, there will be 2 more articles: “Basic concepts of bluetooth-mesh network” and “Architecture of bluetooth-mesh network”.

    In the world of technology, the race continues for the first place in combining all the things around us with the help of wireless communication protocols, the main feature of which is low power consumption.

    At a time when the Wi-Fi Alliance is developing the 802.11ah standard , and the Telecom Consortium is developing the 5G standard, which will include the low-power protocol, Bluetooth SIG announced a bluetooth mesh network using BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) technology. We all know that BLE is just a low-power technology and, given its other features, Bluetooth SIG, in the end, offers an industrial-grade solution. Yes, exactly: Industrial-grade Solution .

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

    In this article, we briefly review the above components.

    Key components


    Reliability


    As you know, network reliability is also evaluated by 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”, thanks to which, all nodes of the network can connect to each other directly without additional special nodes with the function of a hub or router. Which, in turn, relieves the network of points of failure.

    • Multipath (message relay) : architecture for relaying a managed message flow using multiple routes. In conjunction with the ease of deployment and management, it 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 indicates support for up to 32,000 network nodes. Currently, networks with more than 1000 nodes are already deployed. 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 quickly scales, as it is specifically designed for this purpose.

    • Speed : The small size of the bluetooth package, together with a high-speed radio channel, provides very fast messaging. In the case of enterprise lighting, this allows, for example, one switch to simultaneously control hundreds of lighting fixtures.

    • Multicast : A managed message relay architecture, combined with the ability to subscribe / provide group messaging, makes the network unique to handle large amounts of multicast messaging data. Industrial lighting is a great example of a deployment scenario in which bluetooth mesh is the perfect solution.

    Security


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

    • Level of control : devices added to the network can use 256-bit elliptical cryptography algorithms using out-of-band authentication. All communication in the network is protected by AES-CCM encryption algorithm with 128-bit key. This ensures that all messages on the network are encrypted and authenticated.

    • Multilevel : 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 prevents others from monitoring network devices, especially when these devices are moving within the range of other networks.

    In the following article we will consider basic concepts of a network.

    Thanks for attention.

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