Bluetooth Mesh, a Year After Launch, Sees Future in Smart Home, Large Networks

Since its launch a year ago, Bluetooth mesh has been qualified in more than 65 products from silicon, stack, component and end product vendors, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group said Wednesday, saying the communications protocol is playing a role in development of the smart home and in smart building, industry and cities. The wireless protocol enables “many-to-many” device communications, positioning it for large-scale networks, it said. As an enabler of future IoT markets, Bluetooth mesh is scalable across the smart home, commercial building automation and industrial environments, said ABI Research analyst Stuart Carlaw in the release. Bluetooth mesh, along with Bluetooth beacons, "can propel these environments towards greater automation, increased sensorization, and enable valuable RTLS [real-time location system] services,” with nearly 360 million annual Bluetooth Smart Building device shipments forecast by 2022, said Carlaw. Alibaba’s artificial intelligence product development group chose Bluetooth mesh as its communications platform for the smart home on its ability to meet customers’ “scale, performance, and reliability requirements in the home,” said Lijuan Chen, head of Alibaba A.I. Labs.