It’s been a year since the release of Bluetooth® Mesh Networking. During this period, a number of products have been released which support Bluetooth Mesh — from embedded chips/modules to smart lighting bulbs to BlueZ.

BlueZ is the official Linux Bluetooth protocol stack. It can be deployed on a Linux platform and provides support for the core Bluetooth layers and protocols.

BlueZ for Bluetooth® Mesh Networking

BlueZ started to support Bluetooth® Mesh Networking in its BlueZ v5.47 release and has seen some improvements in subsequent releases, BlueZ v5.48 and BlueZ v5.49. These releases come with Bluetooth® Mesh Networking support in the form of a new meshctl tool. Using this tool, it’s possible to provision Bluetooth® Mesh Networking devices through the GATT Provisioning Bearer (PB-GATT) and configure them using the GATT Proxy protocol.

Now, you can deploy Bluetooth® Mesh Networking devices on Linux platforms, which may be from different Linux distributors, then run meshctl tool to provision and configure a Bluetooth® Mesh Networking product. This provides a new option, letting you use the Linux board as a provisioner and configuration client to establish or build up a mesh network. Meanwhile, with the help of meshctl tool, you can learn the Bluetooth® Mesh Networking provisioning and model configuration process. Both of which are the first step you confront when you start developing Bluetooth® Mesh Networking products, prototypes, or demos.

BlueZ on Raspberry Pi3

Earlier this year, I went through the process of deploying BlueZ v5.49 on my Raspberry Pi3 board. I spent two weeks looking for solutions on the internet and sharing challenges I encountered with Linux experts to make it happen.

As a Developer Relations Manager for the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), I have a responsibility to share my knowledge and experience, shorten your learning curve, and help accelerate the learning process. So, I summarized the issues, collected the corresponding information, itemized them by a reasonable working flow, verified with my team, and drafted a step-by-step guide that helps you set up BlueZ. This step-by-step guide outlines:

  • Prerequisites before getting started
  • How to configure the Raspberry Pi3 board
  • How to install dependencies for BlueZ v5.49
  • How to get BlueZ’s source code
  • How to compile and install BlueZ on Pi3
  • How to recompile the kernel to make the meshctl tool
  • How to install the recompiled kernel
  • How to verify kernel installation

After following this step-by-step guide, you will get a test and development environment on your Pi3 board and can use it to build an amazing Bluetooth® Mesh Network.

Check back for future step-by-step guides, including an overview on how to use the meshctl tool.

If you’re interested in learning more about developing with Bluetooth, check out our other developer resources.

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Bluetooth® Mesh Networking Developer Study Guide

The Bluetooth® Mesh Networking Developer Study Guide is a self-study educational resource which covers both the theory and practice of Bluetooth® Mesh Networking device firmware development.

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