Bluetooth, introduced in 1999, has been applied to a wide range of fields, from wireless audio to connected devices, for nearly 20 years. Bluetooth mesh networking, announced a year ago, is also growing, with applications spanning a wide range of new markets, such as smart buildings, smart industries, smart cities, and smart homes.

Bluetooth mesh networking supports many-to-many device communication and is optimized for creating large-scale device networks. Additionally, mesh networking technology, developed to meet the scalability, stability, and security requirements of commercial and industrial environments, is being used to implement smart buildings and smart industries where tens to thousands of devices must communicate reliably with each other.

The Bluetooth SIG said that since the launch of Bluetooth mesh in July of last year, more than 65 products supporting mesh networking have been certified by silicon, stack, component and device vendors.

“Bluetooth Mesh is a wireless protocol that can meet our customers’ scale, performance, and reliability requirements in the home,” said Miffy Chen, general manager of Alibaba AI Labs. “We are confident that Bluetooth will become the standard for home and building automation in the coming years.”

“Bluetooth mesh is a fundamental enabler of the future IoT market,” said Stuart Carlaw, chief research officer at ABI Research. “Bluetooth mesh, along with Bluetooth beacons, will enable real-time location system (RTLS) services, and we expect annual shipments of 360 million Bluetooth smart building devices to reach 2022.”

Lighting control systems, in particular, are driving the expansion of Bluetooth mesh implementations. A building's lighting system creates a natural grid where all devices in a Bluetooth mesh network can communicate with each other, enabling building-wide control, monitoring, and automation systems within the facility. This wireless lighting solution can also serve as a platform to enable services such as point-of-interest solutions, indoor positioning, asset tracking, and improved space utilization.

“Bluetooth mesh has transformed the landscape of connected lighting by providing solutions that enable lighting to serve a greater purpose in industrial and commercial spaces,” said Mark Needham, Vice President of European Sales at Fulham. “These are just the beginning, with lighting system analytics helping visitors find their way around a building, building operators pinpointing the location of assets, and collecting a wealth of data from sensors throughout a building.”

According to the Bluetooth Market Trends Update 2018 conducted by ABI Research, annual commercial smart lighting device shipments are expected to increase approximately fivefold by 2022.