GENEVA, Feb. 22, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ellisys, a leading worldwide provider of Bluetooth®, Wi-Fi®, and Universal Serial Bus (USB) protocol test, analysis, and qualification solutions, today announced a major addition to its feature support for the recently released Bluetooth Mesh Networking specifications on its industry-leading Bluetooth all-in-one protocol analysis platforms. This added support provides timely updates to the company’s widely deployed Bluetooth Explorer™ and Bluetooth Tracker™ products and includes specialized analytical and performance characterizations of mesh network profiles, properties, security and privacy mechanisms, and system operation. Mesh networking is a many-to-many (m:m) range extension adaptation for Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) that opens a wide array of new applications for Bluetooth technology, primarily associated with IoT. These Ellisys feature additions are provided at no cost to Ellisys customers and are available via a standard product software update.
“The additional feature support for mesh networking analysis will help to accelerate a variety of development tasks our customers undertake as part of projects that include this technology,” said Mario Pasquali, Ellisys president and CEO. “Mesh networking is clearly one of the most important advancements in Bluetooth technology since its inception. We are excited to provide our customers with the advanced capabilities needed to achieve the highest level of interoperability.”
“Global product interoperability is a cornerstone of Bluetooth technology, and the Bluetooth product qualification process is central to ensuring the interoperability of the nearly 4 billion new Bluetooth devices forecasted to ship in 2018,” said Marriot Winquist, Vice President of Member Development and Services at the Bluetooth SIG. “It’s great to see our member companies deliver tools to support the full range of Bluetooth specifications and topologies. These valuable testing tools further strengthen the Bluetooth qualification process and, as a result, help other members deliver more innovative, secure, and highly interoperable Bluetooth products to market.”
“As specialists in wireless technologies, and in particular Bluetooth Low Energy and its role in the Internet of Things, our development team is keen to keep our development tools and capabilities current with the latest technologies from the Bluetooth SIG,” said Łukasz Rymanowski, co-founder and technical lead at Codecoup. “The Ellisys Bluetooth Tracker is an invaluable asset for us, and the added support for mesh technology greatly enhances our ability to fine tune our output and provide our customers with leading-edge support.”
Mesh Network Applications and Environments
The Bluetooth SIG recently released its highly anticipated mesh networking specifications. These specifications define a broad spectrum of device and systemic requirements for a large-scale many-to-many network using Bluetooth Low Energy wireless technology. Bluetooth mesh networks can greatly increase the range of Bluetooth communications by using a message relay approach and are inherently uncomplicated and inexpensive to deploy, as there are no requirements for a central router or computer. These attributes make Bluetooth mesh networking ideal for various IoT applications and environments, such as Smart Home, asset tracking, industrial controls, retail, airports, offices, and more. Devices such as tablets and mobile phones that do not include a native mesh stack can still access mesh networks through proxy nodes, using a special protocol defined by the mesh networking specifications, making backward-compatibility a non-issue.
Mesh Security
At the core of mesh networking is a robust array of mandatory security mechanisms designed to provide a defense against network intrusions and passive eavesdropping. Analysis of security features will be a significant focus of mesh-related hardware and software development projects. The advanced capture engines and sophisticated application software used by Ellisys Explorer and Tracker analyzers are ideally suited to resolve and demystify the variety of security features installed on mesh networks.
Availability and Information
The added feature support for mesh networks is provided as a free software update to existing Ellisys customers and is provided at no additional cost to new customers. Existing users can update their current Ellisys application software through standard means from within the application. For more information, please contact Ellisys at sales@ellisys.com or via the following form: https://www.ellisys.com/sales/
Innovative Bluetooth Test and Analysis Solutions
The Explorer and Tracker all-in-one Bluetooth protocol analysis solutions are designed to support integrated, concurrent capture and analysis of a wide variety of wired and wireless communications. These products are deployed in the labs of every major Bluetooth developer worldwide. Ellisys analyzers include passive, whole-band capture of all Bluetooth channels, a wideband approach pioneered by Ellisys engineers. Various purchase configurations are offered to meet the project requirements of a broad array of developers, test houses, and system designers.
Ellisys analyzers support Bluetooth Classic (BR/EDR) and Bluetooth LE, Wi-Fi, and a wide variety of wired interfaces, including logic signals, host controller interface (HCI) protocols (USB, UART, and SPI), Audio I2S, various standard interface buses, and WCI-2, all visualized over the Ellisys Bluetooth analyzer software suite. Ellisys solutions provide the convenience and accuracy of single-platform integration with unequalled precision timing synchronization of and between supported wireless technologies and wired interfaces.
Ellisys also provides the Bluetooth Qualifier™ (EBQ) system, a Bluetooth SIG-approved, standards-based, test and qualification system for Bluetooth link layer and HCI. Bluetooth mesh networking utilizes several advanced Bluetooth 5 features, such as Advertising Extensions (Adv Ext), which have been extensively tested and validated by chip manufacturers worldwide, using the EBQ.
About Ellisys
Ellisys is a leading worldwide supplier of advanced protocol test solutions for Bluetooth®, Wi-Fi®, USB 2.0, SuperSpeed USB 3.1, USB Power Delivery, USB Type-C™, DisplayPort™, and Thunderbolt™ technologies. More information is available on www.ellisys.com.
