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Bluetooth 2016 Roadmap Brings Fourfold Range Increase and Mesh Networking (thestack.com)

Posted by timothy on from the rising-towards-convergence dept.

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.

1 of 29 comments (clear)

  1. Oh, it's BS. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.