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Review
. 2017 Jun 22;17(7):1467.
doi: 10.3390/s17071467.

Bluetooth Low Energy Mesh Networks: A Survey

Seyed Mahdi Darroudi  1 , Carles Gomez  2
Affiliations
Review

Bluetooth Low Energy Mesh Networks: A Survey

Seyed Mahdi Darroudi et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has gained significant momentum. However, the original design of BLE focused on star topology networking, which limits network coverage range and precludes end-to-end path diversity. In contrast, other competing technologies overcome such constraints by supporting the mesh network topology. For these reasons, academia, industry, and standards development organizations have been designing solutions to enable BLE mesh networks. Nevertheless, the literature lacks a consolidated view on this emerging area. This paper comprehensively surveys state of the art BLE mesh networking. We first provide a taxonomy of BLE mesh network solutions. We then review the solutions, describing the variety of approaches that leverage existing BLE functionality to enable BLE mesh networks. We identify crucial aspects of BLE mesh network solutions and discuss their advantages and drawbacks. Finally, we highlight currently open issues.

Keywords: 6Lo; 6LoWPAN; Bluetooth Low Energy; Bluetooth Smart; Bluetooth Smart Mesh; Internet of Things; IoT; mesh networks; survey.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A taxonomy of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) mesh network solutions.
Figure 2
Figure 2
BLE protocol stack (adapted from [2]).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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