Espressif Systems Creates Bluetooth Mesh Solutions to Unleash the Unlimited Potential of IoT

As the preferred technology in the field of Internet of Things, Bluetooth has spawned many innovative application scenarios such as Smart home, smart lighting, smart city . According to the "2021 Bluetooth Market Latest Information" , the shipment volume of Bluetooth smart home automation devices will reach 222 million in 2021, and the annual shipment volume of Bluetooth residential smart lighting will reach 39 million. Moreover, it is expected that by 2025, the annual shipment volume of Bluetooth smart home automation devices will increase by 3 times, reaching 670 million in just 5 years. The main devices driving this growth include smart home automation controllers, smart lighting and smart appliances.

“As the only wireless standard that can provide a fully decentralized architecture with no single point of failure, Bluetooth mesh networking is ideal for creating control, monitoring and automation systems that enable hundreds or thousands of devices to communicate reliably and securely,” said Li Jiarong, Director of Bluetooth SIG Asia Pacific and China Marketing.

Bluetooth mesh network, the wireless technology of choice for AIoT leaders

Nowadays, smart home and lighting control systems based on Bluetooth mesh technology have received strong support from many leading companies. Espressif has been deeply engaged in the research and development and design of software and hardware products in the AIoT field for many years. The Bluetooth mesh protocol stack ESP-BLE-MESH it developed is mainly used in smart home, smart lighting, and smart industry and other market segments.

Espressif has developed an open source Bluetooth mesh protocol stack ESP-BLE-MESH based on Zephyr Bluetooth® mesh, which fully supports almost all core features, client models and server models specified by the Bluetooth SIG Bluetooth mesh protocol. It is one of the most fully functional Bluetooth mesh protocol stacks in the current open source protocol stack. Through this protocol stack, users can communicate and work together with standard Bluetooth mesh devices of different manufacturers and types around the world. Espressif's engineers have made many technical innovations to Bluetooth mesh based on actual user scenarios. For example, in 2019, Espressif launched the Bluetooth mesh fast provisioning technology (Fast Provisioning Model), which can support 100 nodes to complete all provisioning work within 50 seconds.

Espressif's Bluetooth mesh protocol stack is mainly used in smart home, smart lighting, and smart industry market segments. Users can build a secure and stable communication network based on it to achieve functions such as device networking, automatic control, and remote monitoring. In addition, Espressif also provides SoCs that integrate Bluetooth and Wi-Fi or IEEE 802.15.4 (such as ESP32 series, ESP32-S series, ESP32-C series, and ESP32-H series), so users can also implement a gateway that converts Bluetooth mesh and Wi-Fi or IEEE 802.15.4 based on Espressif's Bluetooth mesh protocol stack.

Zhang Ruian, the founding CEO of Espressif Technologies, said that Espressif chose Bluetooth mesh network mainly because of the following three advantages:

1) Bluetooth Low Energy is one of the mainstream wireless communication protocols in the current market and is widely used in smartphones, gateways and terminal devices. It can work stably in the crowded 2.4 GHz frequency band through adaptive frequency hopping technology. Bluetooth Low Energy has the characteristics of high security and interoperability of global standard Bluetooth devices. If hardware resources allow, the existing Bluetooth Low Energy devices on the market can be upgraded to support Bluetooth mesh protocol through OTA (Over-the-Air), which is the advantage of the development of Espressif Bluetooth mesh protocol stack and the key to the promotion and popularization of Bluetooth mesh.

2) The Bluetooth SIG has developed detailed protocol specifications, application models, and test specifications for Bluetooth mesh, covering common application scenarios and device types. At the same time, the scalability of the protocol also ensures that Bluetooth mesh can meet more usage scenarios in the future.

3) In addition, since Bluetooth mesh is an upper-layer protocol defined based on low-power Bluetooth, from the perspective of chip development, supporting Bluetooth mesh function does not require modifying the chip's internal circuit design. The Bluetooth mesh protocol topology is also relatively simple, and software implementation of Bluetooth mesh does not require a large amount of device memory, effectively reducing the cost required for customers to use mesh networks.

Bluetooth mesh solution enables diverse application scenarios

In the field of smart lighting, Espressif's Bluetooth mesh protocol stack can be used to connect and control smart lights in homes, enterprises, industries, and public facilities. Since lighting equipment is generally installed on the wall and powered by wall wiring, the use of Espressif's Bluetooth mesh protocol stack can reduce the difficulty of network deployment and management, making it an ideal solution for such scenarios. In addition, the Bluetooth mesh protocol's features such as self-organizing networks, network self-healing, and fault-tolerance mechanisms are also fully applicable to the deployment of smart devices in the home. For example, in blind spots of Wi-Fi networks, devices can be effectively connected through Bluetooth mesh.

In the process of deploying a Bluetooth mesh network, you can connect to the Internet through a gateway to achieve remote control of the device. Espressif SoC integrates Bluetooth (classic Bluetooth + low-power Bluetooth) and Wi-Fi or IEEE 802.15.4, and supports the coexistence of multiple protocols. Customers can implement such a gateway device based on Espressif's Bluetooth mesh protocol stack. For example, Espressif has helped customers integrate Espressif's Bluetooth mesh protocol stack into smart speakers to act as a gateway. Based on the coexistence mechanism of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, customers can control other nearby Bluetooth mesh devices with only one Espressif highly integrated chip. At the same time, the device can also play music using classic Bluetooth and maintain a stable Wi-Fi connection.

Bluetooth mesh: the future of wireless

Zhang Ruian, the founding CEO of Espressif, believes that based on current market data, the application scenarios of Bluetooth mesh in the field of smart lighting will become more and more extensive in the future. For example, by combining the AoA/AoD technology of Bluetooth 5.1 with Bluetooth mesh, indoor positioning functions can be realized through the lighting network. This also brings consumers and enterprises a broader application idea, such as indoor positioning, asset tracking and personalized application scenarios. Similarly, based on the device interconnection of Bluetooth mesh and the networking function through gateways, more smart lighting applications will continue to emerge in the future.

In addition to indoor positioning, the application of Bluetooth mesh in the field of AIoT will also increase. Combining Bluetooth mesh, voice and image recognition, smart home sensors and machine learning will enable devices to autonomously learn and understand people's living habits, bringing people a more intelligent experience and further improving the quality of life.

As more and more smartphones provide full support for Bluetooth mesh, mobile phones and Bluetooth mesh will achieve more interactions in the future. Espressif is also optimistic about the potential of Bluetooth mesh to support IP protocol in the future. Based on its ability to connect to IP protocol, users will not only be able to control Bluetooth mesh devices nearby through their mobile phones, but also remotely control devices without a gateway.

Combining Bluetooth 5.2's LE Audio with Bluetooth mesh may also enable many innovative applications, such as support for voice and audio applications in Bluetooth mesh networks. To achieve this, Bluetooth mesh needs to further expand the protocol content, such as supporting LE Audio.

About Bluetooth Technology

The annual shipment of Bluetooth® products is approaching 4 billion. As a global wireless standard, Bluetooth technology brings us simple and secure connections. Since its establishment in 1998, the Bluetooth technology community has continuously expanded Bluetooth capabilities, promoted innovation, opened up new markets, and redefined global communications. Today, Bluetooth has become the preferred wireless technology for developers in many solution areas, including audio transmission, data transmission, location services and large-scale device networks.

About the Bluetooth SIG

The Bluetooth SIG was established in 1998 as a non-profit industry association responsible for the development of Bluetooth® technology. With the strong support of 36,000 member companies, the Bluetooth SIG is committed to promoting collaboration among members, creating new and more powerful specifications, extending the technology, developing a world-class product certification program to promote global interoperability, and further promoting its brand by increasing awareness, understanding and adoption of Bluetooth technology.