Bluetooth Mesh Bucks Short Range Reputation, Consumer Roots

TORONTO — Bluetooth Mesh is going to push the connection technology away from consumer applications to commercial and industrial applications, while highlighting its range and low power capabilities.

"Bluetooth has struggled in reputation if nothing else as people associate it with being shorter range communication," said Michael McDonald, vice president of Toshiba's Platform Enabling Group. "We're very happy with Bluetooth Mesh coming out because it addresses the ability for Bluetooth to go longer ranges."

Toshiba recently announced it added Bluetooth Mesh support to its lineup of Bluetooth Low Energy products, including support for a long range option with an external power amplifier. It comes on the heels of the standard meeting by ratified and launched by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG).

In a telephone interview with EE Times, McDonald said Bluetooth Mesh and Toshiba's application software will enable its Bluetooth Low Energy products to increase communication range, reliability and obstacle penetration capability while also lowering power consumption when used in combination with a non-proprietary mesh platform. He said the Toshiba Bluetooth communication system is capable of link budgets exceeding 100 decibels (dB) with external PA and LNA, which makes it suitable for fast growing markets such as factory automation and building management, as well as communications in consumer products.

McDonald said the big appeal of the new Bluetooth Mesh standard is it increases the range and reliability of communications without increasing power requirements, making it ideal for battery-operated security devices on doors and windows, particularly where thick concrete walls are in place, which traditionally challenged Bluetooth. “Now we're taking about being able to go hundreds of meters," he said.

Bluetooth was originally a point-to-point connection in many ways, said McDonald. “People used it to sync their cellphone to their car or their cellphone to their Jawbone headpiece," he said.

Recently, Bluetooth has also been used in a one-to-many configuration. “That became really important for the beacon market," McDonald said. 

For industrial IoT and IoT in general to succeed, McDonald said, it's necessary to have an end-to-end connection where devices are able to talk to other devices — a Bluetooth door sensor communicating with a camera in a security scenario, for example, or bringing up the lighting in a house. “If you can have greater interaction between these devices, that's when you can start to see some of the magic come out with IoT," McDonald said. 

Non-proprietary solutions are also important, McDonald said. “People have been trying to create a more robust Bluetooth solution with a fabric capability," he said. "Solutions up until now have been proprietary solutions."

The great value of Bluetooth, he said, is that everyone has Bluetooth in their cellphone, and all of these devices are interoperable. When a company introduces a proprietary solution, only certain devices can work within that fabric. “That's not what Bluetooth is about," he added. 

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