Bluetooth SIG Aims to Boost Smart Lighting Interoperability with the Bluetooth NLC Standard
Extension to Bluetooth Mesh, which in turn extends Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), offers a full-stack standard for networked lighting.
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has announced a new standard for smart lighting, Bluetooth Networked Lighting Control (NLC) — which adds lighting-specific device profiles to the Bluetooth Mesh standard to help improve interoperability between vendors.
"The establishment of globally available wireless standards has always been a key landmark in enabling connected device ecosystems to achieve their full promise. Wireless lighting control is no different," claims Andrew Zignani, senior research director at ABI Research, of Bluetooth SIG's announcement, brought to our attention by CNX Software. "Bluetooth NLC expands the supplier opportunity by instilling buyer confidence and peace of mind, increasing the likelihood of adoption, and unleashing the lighting control market’s total potential."
The Bluetooth NLC standard serves to fill a hole in the existing Bluetooth Mesh standard: the fact that vendors may choose to implement the optional extension to Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) in different ways, or not at all, meaning a lack of interoperability between devices. The solution, then: standardize all three layers of the communication stack, using BLE for the radio layer, Bluetooth Mesh for the communications layer, and Bluetooth NLC at the device layer.
Claimed to be "the only full-stack standard for wireless lighting control," Bluetooth NLC promises "true, multi-vendor interoperability" — meaning Bluetooth NLC-certified devices from one vendor should play nicely with devices from another. The Bluetooth SIG also promises improved scalability, using a decentralized control architecture — which can work from a single bulb all the way up to whole-home lighting systems.
More information on the Bluetooth NLC standard is available on the Bluetooth SIG website; no companies have yet announced commercial products based on the standard.