Courtesy of u-blox : Bluetooth 5 & Bluetooth mesh
Bluetooth is a short range wireless technology that operates in the unlicensed Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) 2.4 GHz radio frequency band. Bluetooth 5 includes three major enhancements to Bluetooth low energy: increased data rate (2 x the speed), extended range (4 x the distance) and enhanced advertising capability. Bluetooth mesh enables many‑to‑many Bluetooth low energy networking solutions. In this story, you follow the operations of an office manager today and then see the benefits that Bluetooth 5 and Bluetooth mesh brings him. Learn more at https://www.u-blox.com/bluetooth
Bluetooth 5
The latest version of the specification, Bluetooth 5, includes three major enhancements to Bluetooth low energy: increased data rate (2 x the speed), extended range (4 x the distance) and enhanced advertising capability. Two of these features will come with a software upgrade and one (extended range) requires new hardware.
The recently introduced Bluetooth mesh enables many‑to‑many Bluetooth low energy networking solutions. Bluetooth mesh is available as a software update to Bluetooth low energy and can be used with any of the Bluetooth low energy versions 4.0, 4.1, 4.2 and 5.0.
Mesh extends the coverage area significantly, even further than Bluetooth 5, because Bluetooth nodes can forward messages acting as relays in a cooperative network.
Bluetooth 5 and Bluetooth mesh open up completely new applications for Bluetooth. Industrial sensor networks, building automation, street lighting, environmental monitoring, and many other applications will require only a single host node to collect, control and manage the data and the mesh network.
Overview of Bluetooth versions and their features:
| Version/ extension |
Features | Description |
| Bluetooth 4.1 | ||
| BR/EDR Secure Connections | Provides 128‑bit AES encryption strength | |
| Dual Mode Topology | Enables a device to act as a Bluetooth dual‑mode hub and Bluetooth low energy peripheral at the same time | |
| L2CAP Dedicated Channels | Enables IPv6 over Bluetooth low energy | |
| Bluetooth 4.2 | Internet protocol support profile (IPSP) | A Bluetooth low energy sensor can access the Internet through a gateway device |
| LE Privacy 1.2 | Keeps Bluetooth low energy devices from being tracked | |
| LE Secure Connections | Provides 128‑bit AES encryption strength for Bluetooth low energy | |
| LE Data Length Extension | Increases data throughput up to 2.5x | |
| Bluetooth 5 | 2 Mbps LE | Extends the data rates supported by Bluetooth low energy up to 2 Mbps, thus doubling the speed |
| LE Long Range | Extends the range supported by Bluetooth low energy devices to four times the range | |
| LE Advertising Extension | Support for longer advertisement messages for more feature rich Bluetooth beacons and for future IPv6 based mesh | |
| Bluetooth mesh | LE Topography Extension | Mesh networking significantly extends the area covered by a cooperative Bluetooth low energy network |
Further products
NINA-B3 series
NINA-B1 series
ODIN-W2 series
OBS421 series
JODY-W1 series
EMMY-W1 series
ELLA-W1 series