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Bluetooth 2016 Roadmap Brings Fourfold Range Increase and Mesh Networking (thestack.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has announced its roadmap for Bluetooth Smart in 2016, promising a fourfold range increase in the low-energy, IoT-oriented version of the protocol, along with dedicated mesh networking, a 100% increase in speed and no extra consumption of energy. The last set of upgrades to the protocol offered direct access to the internet and security enhancements. Since Bluetooth must currently contend with attacks on everything from cars to toilets, the increased range means that developers may not be able to rely on 'fleeting contact' as a security feature quite as much.
it's 2015. k thx bye.
Has development stalled on those, is everything moving over to Bluetooth LE?
Call me skeptical but I'd love to know how they've managed that short of a major breakthrough in RF transmitter or DSP technology.
Probably overunity.
4x the range is accomplished by running at 1/2 to 1/8th the data rate -- and aside from the astly higher duty cycle due to the lower data rate, the receiver has a much higher DSP workload, driving power consumption per bit even higher.
Meanwhile, the 3x throughput mode is achieved by significantly decreasing the usable range, though the peak current usage is about the same as the normal 1mbit mode, albeit with 1/2 the duty cycle for the same aamount of data.
Finally, its mesh solution can best be described as "pray and spray", pretty much incapable of scaling to anything useful int he real world. Their mesh WG seems to believe they can somehow ignore the realities that every other mesh attempt has run into.
Posting AC because my employer is involved in this shit.
I don't know.
But how is it that DSL and cable speeds keep increasing using the same last mile medium?
How do some computers run faster than others that use the same hardware?
Why does the same source code, compiled with different options or compilers perform differently on the same hardware?
My guess is it is all in the software and optimizations.
Algorithms and drivers get better as we learn more about real world use cases.
As standards converge, we don't have to build in a bunch of extra cruft into the software. etc. etc.
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
I must say I'm actually excited about this. From what little I've worked with Bluetooth the capability of mesh networking always seemed just out of reach due to the spotty connectivity and amount of low-level mumbo-jumbo required to implement it. i.e., certainly possible, but not exactly practical (obviously in some contexts this was not a barrier, such as with dissidents in some parts of the world, at least so they say in the news, heh)
Boosted range and mesh networks built into the spec sounds very promising indeed; of course as consumers we will all be quite shafted with any of it before the cool implications ever take root. There we go, now I'm feeling cynical again.
Call me skeptical but I'd love to know how they've managed that short of a major breakthrough in RF transmitter or DSP technology.
Bluetooth LE uses a rather basic GFSK radio interface. If they moved to a more spectrally efficient modulation scheme (such as the one regular BT uses) they can improve things significantly. They have also increased the packet size, which will improve the ratio of data to overhead when you are sending larger amounts of data (which is probably not most IoT applications).
The idea that someone wants (never mind needs) to be able to control their toilet via an app on their smart phone is kind of full of crap. Bad enough your smart TV reports back home ...
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
The thing that made Bluetooth LE popular was that Apple let you connect to the phone using it without having to go through their silly control-freak MFI program. Before they did this (I think starting with the iPhone 4) you had to either pay them lots of money, or do something like hack the headphone connector. I don't know why they won't just enable the SPP protocol on classic Bluetooth - its not like they have a whole bunch of accessories they don't want you to compete with - but maybe it is one of those legacy of Jobs' sociopathy things.
Anyway, that is why LE has become the big wireless interface. I guess the Bluetooth Sig group are trying to capitalise on this situation to expand into the wider IoT (at the moment LE is very very limiting due to the short range). The real question will be whether Apple allows these 4.2 changes to propagate through to their developers, or puts artificial limitations on it (such as the existing LE packet throttling) again.
Bluetooth LE uses a rather basic GFSK radio interface. If they moved to a more spectrally efficient modulation scheme (such as the one regular BT uses) they can improve things significantly.
Yeah but the more spectrally efficient ones like QAM are less power efficient. FSK is about the best thing you can do with low power if you don't mind being greedy with the spectrum. And BTLE is a low energy protocol, so it makes sense to prioritise energy use.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Wasnt BT suppost to be a PAN ie., SHORTRANGE?
Is Bluetooth trying to compete with wifi?
I love bluetooth but a whole lot of bluetooth implementations are a damn clusterfuck.
Windows, in particular, is particularly bad. Most adapters are garbage and can't even handle simple bluetooth audio. 3rd party bluetooth stacks are a great way to bring on the BSODs too.
About the only bluetooth adapter you can rely on in windows are the ones that come baked in to Intel mini-pci express cards.. But getting those to work on the desktop is tricky because the Bluetooth adapter is USB, and relies on the USB connectivity pins on the mini-pci express standard. A plain jane adapter card won't work. Some, though, will break out those pins and allow you to connect to a standard USB header on the motherboard.
A few companies sell a product that's basically an intel laptop Wifi card on an adapter that breaks out those USB lines so you can use the BT as well. Hands down the best way to get reliable wifi and BT on a desktop system.
Here's the gigabyte version. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HF8K0O6
OK, not constantly broadcasting a signal is a good start. But it's hardly "can't be tracked." The device will presumably need to be able to respond to a known device calling it. I'd like to know how they'd prevent someone tricking the device into responding and then tracking it (perhaps by replaying an observed pairing event to a "known" device). If you can make it reply, you can track it.
Also, "FIPS-compliant encryption" is hardly much of an endorsement. All FIPS level 1 ensures is that you use an "approved" cryptographic module. SHA-1 is still considered FIPS-compliant, as is 3DES, neither of which are actually terribly strong.
still waiting for the ability to connect multiple devices to one transmitter so I can get rid of my IR headphones in the car and home TV.
coding gain on the link.. use hardware assist..
Four times what? Are these ranges measured in the meters, or in miles like LoRa WAN?