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Reflecting on Works With 2020

Matt Saunders | 09/255/2020 | 01:00 PM
Wow, what a great event our first-ever Works With smart home developer conference was! It was simply awesome to see so many companies and industry sectors all coming together under one virtual roof to learn and discuss all things smart home and IoT.

With more than 6,000 registered attendees, seven excellent keynote speakers, and a ton of high quality developer-oriented educational sessions, there was a LOT to take in at Works With. Fortunately, anything you may have missed is available to see replayed on-demand via the Works With site so long as your register (which is free). In every session I visited, the live Q&A on Slack was very busy - a great sign that Works With attendees were fully engaged with the content.

I was fortunate enough to be able to experience many different aspects of the Works With event, and three big themes stood out:
1. Ease of development
2. Interoperability
3. Security
Ease of Development

Being able to easily and efficiently reuse development effort on one project when starting the next project came up in many places during the conference, not least of which was in the Amazon keynote. When companies develop scalable, versatile platforms that work on standards and incorporate common API's and/or data flows, this effectively enables developers to focus their valuable time on adding innovation in the areas that are most important to them and their products. That is how truly special products are made!

Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP) generated a lot of interest, as the Zigbee Alliance project is a big deal in making interoperability easier to achieve across smart home devices. The project now has 145 member companies and over 1,300 people around the globe participating and contributing to its mission. The project has an open approach to development - open project and open source (all on GitHub), so it's very easy to access and start to engage with.

The first devices CHIP is focused on include smart lighting, HVAC controls, window covers/shades, gateways, and others to build momentum in both smart home and smart buildings. Sujata Neidig, who represented Project CHIP in a Works With panel discussion hosted by Stacey on IoT's Stacey Higginbotham, announced that we should expect to see the first products built on CHIP appear in the market this time next year. Be sure to check out our EFR Series 2 parts to get your CHIP development going!

Interoperability

The standardized models in Project CHIP should make it much easier for device manufacturers to build connected products that can fit very well into a wide variety of use cases and ecosystems. This means it becomes so much easier for consumers to choose what to buy and to get their smart home devices up and running instantly. That's a big win-win for everyone!

Another one of the sessions I joined on interoperability was on the Google technical track, called "Introduction to Google Ecosystem." It was great to see how easy it is now to create a door lock example running on our EFR32MG21 development platform using OpenWeave and seamlessly integrate that into the Google Ecosystem. It truly demonstrates how these initiatives, like Project CHIP, are revolutionary in terms of interoperability.

We've now established that easy development and reuse of technology combined with interoperability leads to rapid growth in the IoT and to building things we can't even imagine yet. BUT - consumers must be confident IoT devices can be trusted to keep their personal information private and secure, which in turn means that the security embedded in these connected products has to be strong.

Security

Getting IoT security right is a big deal and doing so successfully is not an easy thing to achieve. At Silicon Labs, we have been investing in IoT security for quite some years as we saw the need for this coming. In a keynote from our head of IoT, Matt Johnson, Works With attendees heard about our EFR32 Series 2 devices earning both Arm's PSA-2 and IoXt Alliance's SmartCert IoT security certifications. For PSA-2, the EFR32MG21 with Secure Vault is the first wireless SoC ever to achieve this level of certification! We are committed to making security accessible and easy for developers to implement by embracing standards and leading the way for secure IoT connectivity. In doing so, we believe more and more IoT developers will include security by default into their products, thus making it easier for consumers to trust their data is safe in an IoT device.

Another highlight for me was the opening keynote on Works With Day 2 with Ring founder and CEO Jamie Siminoff. It was great listening to his story and the passion he has for advancing IoT and making a positive impact on the way we all live. Jamie shared the latest on Amazon's Sidewalk effort, which stands out as a great example of how IoT can improve the way we live. Jamie described Sidewalk as a 10+ year project for Amazon, which builds on the idea of neighborhood: sharing with neighbors but with an IoT tech twist: the more connected devices your neighbors have in the network, the more everyone benefits. I loved the 'Fetch' example Jamie shared, which is an Amazon ultra-low-power play to be able to track your dog throughout the neighborhood if it escapes! Nodes around the neighborhood track and help pet owners locate their lost dog. To me, this is a simple yet really tangible way of showing how IoT tech, such as 'roaming' within Sidewalk, helps to make the IoT super-valuable to us all.

These past two days have been jam-packed with a ton of great content, and I want to thank all the people and teams involved in preparing and presenting the material. From our internal marketing and apps teams, our design partners, and our customers - all have played a huge role in making this event such a great success! But I'd also be remiss if I didn't give a massive shout out to the Silicon Labs production team who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to evolve what was originally planned as a big 'in-person' event into a huge virtual one! We ended up connecting a much bigger audience than initially planned by going virtual. We did so in a very slick, easy to consume way - bringing together all parts of the IoT industry and fostering great collaboration and innovation in a space that's more relevant now than ever before.

What we are doing at Silicon Labs is striving to make everything work with everything and do so in a way that has a positive impact on everyone's quality of life. We are THE place to go if you want to enable IoT connectivity, and we'd love to talk with you about how we can help bring your next IoT products come to life. If you'd like to start that conversation, we are waiting to hear from you. Simply send us a note here, and we'll be in touch!
Works With Day 1 Roundup of Developer Sessions, Keynotes, Demos, and More

May Ledesma | 09/253/2020 | 08:09 PM

Today, Silicon Labs kicked off its first-ever smart home developer event, Works With 2020, featuring industry experts and leading engineers sharing the latest in smart home technology development. Works With is the first of its kind to host developers and ecosystem partners, delivering 40 engineering-led session and 15 workshops to aid developers with designing, prototyping, and getting their products to market. When Silicon Labs imagined Works With, it wasn’t envisioned as a livestreamed event, but shifting to virtual allowed more than 5,000 developers from all over the world to participate.

Day 1 Recap - It’s All About Connections

Opening Keynote

Silicon Labs CEO, Tyson Tuttle, kicked off the event by diving into Silicon Labs’ vision to build a smarter, more connected world. With the current global pandemic, now more than ever, people are depending on IoT technology to stay connected – to work, to fun, and to each other. The creative ideas of developers are key to the success of the smart home industry.

Tyson went on to speak about Works With being the “Smart Home Hub” – a place where major platform players, protocol experts, and alliance partners unite to help developers navigate smart home technology. The event is designed to bring together all developers, no matter their level of expertise, and provide the know-how and best practices to get certified smart home products to market quicker. Tyson welcomed Silicon Labs IoT SVP and GM Matt Johnson to the keynote stage where he spoke to Grant Erickson, Jim Kitchen, and Joshua Danovitz, who are leading efforts at their respective companies, Google, Comcast, and Amazon, to pioneer a smoother development journey and break through the standards fragmentation in order to bring new and differentiated features to consumers.

Technical Sessions

After the keynote, attendees broke out into a variety of technical sessions, including workshops on designing products that work with Amazon, Google, HomeKit, and Samsung SmartThings ecosystems. During the sessions, developers had the opportunity to hear directly from engineering experts about the latest and greatest in smart home development. The sessions also gave developers the opportunity to learn how to acquire industry-recognized certifications for their products.

Missed some sessions? Watch the Recordings here.

Panel – Building an Ecosystem IoT Developers Will Love

During lunch, technology journalist and IoT thought-leader Stacey Higginbotham (of Stacey on IoT) hosted a panel with leaders from NXP, ADT, Philips Hue, Ikea and Assa Abloy where they discussed how the smart home industry is coming together and how it will continue to evolve.

The panel discussed at length the emphasis on matters related to security and user experience, and one of the main points was the focus on leveraging the IP investment companies have already made. Being able to use existing IP bearing networks and shifting development resources to focus on actually innovating on new features that add value and simplify adoption for consumers.

Panelists also touched on some of the biggest obstacles developers face in bringing their products to market, including the effort required to support so many different protocols and delivering consistent user experiences across brands. Answering these challenges will provide developers with the confidence to build new, more sophisticated feature sets that create better experiences and simplify adoption.

Works With 2020 Announcements

In the midst of all of the Works With buzz and excitement, we made two major announcements – the launch of a new Simplicity Studio and BGM220.

Simplicity Studio 5 is a major upgrade to our Integrated Developer Environment (IDE), leveraging our industry leading IoT wireless expertise. Simplicity Studio 5 offers the same access and developer experience across a wide range of wireless protocols, all within a central web-style user interface. The software platform is scalable to multiple protocols including OpenThread, making it simpler to develop IPv6 based mesh applications and paving the way for future development of Project Connected Home over IP-based devices running on our EFR32 Wireless Gecko. Learn more about Simplicity Studio 5.

BGM220, combines our award-winning BG22 Bluetooth system-on-chip (SoC) devices, a pre-certified module and production-ready firmware with an on-board Bluetooth stack, application layer, and secure boot-loading functionality. Bluetooth Xpress BGX220P/S provides complete IoT solutions with framework libraries, making it easier and faster for developers to create new apps, with no Bluetooth expertise necessary. Click here for more information about BGM220.

What’s On Deck for Day 2

After a full day of learning and great conversations, we’re excited to give you a sneak peak of what to expect tomorrow. Join Silicon Labs Senior Vice President and General Manager for IoT, Matt Johnson, as he sits down with Jamie Siminoff, Founder and Chief Inventor of Ring. Jamie will share his story of creating what is now a dominant name in Wi-Fi-enabled video doorbells. His story is one of tenacity and patience, and his vision for Ring’s future after being acquired by Amazon is as ambitious as it is promising. You can catch the Day 2 Keynote on Thursday, September 10, at 9:00 a.m. CDT. Click here to register.

After the keynote, we have a cornucopia of how-to sessions including workshops on LED-bulb , door lock and sensor product development, energy harvesting, home automation, environmental sensing and more. Our From Chip to Cloud: Building the Whole Product session will answer questions about commissioning, security and authentication to front-end and back-end application interfaces. You can also join our sessions on IoT security, covering the need for the development of security requirements tailored to each vertical device type. Build out your Day 2 agenda here. We look forward to seeing you there! If you can’t make the live stream you can watch replays here.
Connecting Our Pets to Our Homes – Pet Tracker Technology

May Ledesma | 09/246/2020 | 09:19 PM

By:

Mike Wilkinson
CEO & Founder
Paragon Innovations
www.ParagonInnovations.com

As CEO and Founder of Paragon Innovations, I have seen technology evolved, and products changed in a way that has impacted and improved everyone’s lives. Three decades of continuous engineering services have given us the chance to design IoT devices with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other technologies – connecting products and clients all over the world.

These improvements include household products that provide added value to homeowners. We have witnessed industry-changing technology - delivering safety and security using cameras, energy efficiency by remotely controlling thermostats, and monitoring health with connected medical devices, among other platforms. Home automation and connected products provide a new level of convenience and deliver peace of mind to users. Paragon designed one of the first smart home thermostats in 2007 and continues to move forward with innovations.

During the past few years, our team has been working with a client delivering the next generation Pet Trackers for a leading Pet Tracking Device that connects pets to our homes. We all know that pets are an integral part of the family – our technology has included them in our connected homes by providing smart collars with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and cellular connectivity.

What is a GPS Pet Tracker?

The GPS smart collar for dogs keeps track of your best friend’s activity, location, health, and so much more. The embedded technology that lives inside “LINK” provides digital safe zones via Bluetooth that are automatically created by the owner’s phone and where the user places their base station. It also allows users to get timely locations to receive notifications when your dog leaves their safe zone and the ability to track your dog with LINK anywhere in the U.S. when he/she has a stable AT&T and/or Verizon cellular connection.

These days, technology is really going to the dogs and helping owners take care of their loved animals! Pets are a part of Americans’ lives now more than ever, and the tech world is taking notice. Creative entrepreneurs have rolled up hundreds of innovative apps and tech products in recent years, opening up a whole new world of smart and fun ways to care for the four-legged friends in your life. The Pet Tracking Device from LINK is an ideal example and combined with a remote pet camera, a feeder app, and other technology, makes all the sense in the world.

We are excited at what the future holds and are confident we will continue to be part of this growth. Connected homes meet pet care! We will continue to see these changes, and owners will enjoy the benefits of connected devices for added convenience thorough technology and communications.

A Guide to IoT Protocols at Works With Developer Conference

May Ledesma | 08/226/2020 | 07:17 PM

IoT protocols such as Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Z-Wave, Thread, and Bluetooth are all networking technologies that make it possible for IoT products to communicate and work with other platforms, devices, and applications. We rely on these wireless protocols to specify the rules that establish and manage networks and transmit data.

In keeping pace with rapid advances in smart home development, Works With, the smart home developer conference, will feature training and how-to tutorial sessions designed to accelerate IoT development across platforms. With built-in essentials for IoT wireless already implemented into the stack, developers can focus on application development and not spend time worrying about lower-level network details.

To get started with smart home development, check out the featured sessions covering IoT protocols training sessions. But first, we will define what an IoT wireless protocol is.

What is an IoT Wireless Protocol?

IoT wireless protocols specify the rules and formats to manage and transmit data across networks so that devices, gateways, and applications ‘speak’ to each other.

Training Featuring IoT Protocols

Samsung Technical Track: Introduction & Certification

This course will teach engineers how to get started designing products that are capable of connecting with the Samsung SmartThings Ecosystem. This introduction will provide attendees with an overview of how devices can connect to SmartThings using different protocols (Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Z-Wave), as well as explore some upcoming SmartThings developments on Wednesday, September 9, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. CDT.

Z-Wave Technical Track: Development & Certification

Works With Z-Wave - Development

The Z-Wave Technical Track features development and certification components that build upon each other. Attendees will gain a deeper level of understanding of the Simplicity Studio Development Environment and Device Testing for Z-Wave Developers. The session begins with an overview of using Simplicity Studio to develop Z-Wave End Devices (sensors, switches, thermostats, etc.) with a focus on specific features of Simplicity Studio and Z-Wave. Eric Ryherd, a.k.a. “Dr. Z-Wave” will then share some testing and debugging tips learned over his many years of developing Z-Wave products. Eric will describe some hard-to-find “gotchas” and relate several anecdotes from the field that have cost significant time and money.

Works With Z-Wave - Certification

Certification is a cornerstone of Z-Wave and will continue as Z-Wave becomes an Open Standard. The sessions in this curriculum will cover how certification works, how it is likely to change in the new Standards Development Organization, and how you can use the tools provided to self-test your products. Silicon Labs’ Bettina Roll will lead the certification session on Wednesday, September 9, 2020.

Introduction to Zigbee in Simplicity Studio v5 (Amazon)

The development tracks at Works With by Silicon Labs will require attendees to have a good base understanding of the software development environment. Silicon Labs’ Claudio Filho will walk through how to get started using Simplicity Studio. The attendee will learn the location and usage of the different libraries used for the different ecosystems. They will learn how to program a kit with an example project. The attendee will be better prepared for the development sessions after completing this course. This session is scheduled for Wednesday, September 9, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. CDT.

HomeKit Technical Track: Introduction & Certification

This course will introduce engineers on how to get started designing products with Bluetooth solutions that can connect with the HomeKit Ecosystem. This session features two parts. The first part is an introduction to provide attendees with a holistic overview of how Bluetooth is used to provide that connectivity. The second part of the course will cover the process that customers must follow to become a recognized and certified device in HomeKit. This session will be held on Wednesday, September 9, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. CDT.

We look forward to seeing you online and from anywhere in the world at Works With 2020 by Silicon Labs.

Top Three Resources on Wireless Protocols

Tech Talks Blog: Overview of Silicon Labs Wi-Fi Solutions

May Ledesma | 06/161/2020 | 09:52 PM
In this Tech Talk session, Alfredo Pérez Grovas, IoT Modules Product Manager for Silicon Labs, presented an overview of Silicon Labs’ Wi-Fi Solutions, including the RS9116 from our newly acquired family – Redpine Signals. Click here to watch the complete webinar and register now for future Tech Talks. Here are some key points from Alfredo’s session.

Redpine Signals is Now Part of Silicon Labs

Our recent acquisition of Redpine Signals added a valuable amount of technology and capability into our existing vault of expertise. The acquisition highlights the RS9116 family of chips, which comes from a line of three generations of wireless products from the previous RS9110 (Gen 1) and RS9113 (Gen 2).

Redpine Signals’ brings broad expertise in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth solutions with these products using the key technologies of ultra-low system power, multi-protocol (802.11, BT/BLE 5), and multi-threaded processors. These high-performance solutions come with an embedded wireless and networking software, along with multiple security levels, edge intelligence, and ultra-small form factor. All of these features are ideal for multiple target markets such as smart homes, fitness/wearables, healthcare, and industrial.

Expanding the Silicon Labs Wi-Fi Product Family

Our current portfolio of Wi-Fi solutions consists of two categories: Transceiver SoCs & Modules and Full-Network Co-processor SoCs & Modules. The former comprises our WF200/WFM200S and RS9116 n-Link, while the latter is our RS9116 WiseConnect.

The WF200/WFM200S module operates on 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi along with higher-level network and security stacks running on the host processor, either MCU or MPU. The RS9116 n-Link operates on 2.4/5 GHz Wi-Fi, as well as BT and BLE 5. This module also runs wireless, network, and security stacks on the host processor (MCU or MPU). The RS9116 WiseConnect runs wireless, network, and security stacks on the RS9116 while the application runs on the host processor (MCU).

IoT Application Examples of the RS9116

What can the RS9116 do to enable your IoT product development? As mentioned, the RS9116 has all the features that could serve multiple markets.

In the world of smart homes, RS9116 uses Wi-Fi communication for local and cloud control of different devices like locks, cameras, thermostats, and others. During installation, BLE communication is used to provision smart home devices to a home’s or site’s Wi-Fi network. This requirement is made possible through the built-in coexistence manager to manage Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE coexistence. The RS9116 also features low current consumption in ultra-low power mode for battery-operated smart home devices, which is ideal for power efficiency and long battery life.

Another area of application for the RS9116 is wearable devices. This application also features ultra-low power consumption for extended battery life. Still, it is slightly different than a typical smart home device because of the simultaneous multi-protocol communication requirements as follows:
- Heavy communications in 2.4 GHz ISM
- Wi-Fi connected to the cloud through AP with downloads, streaming, notifications, updates, etc.
- BT EDR wireless A2DP music streaming
- BLE peripheral connections to smartphones and tablets and central connections to sensors
Jumpstart Your IoT Product Development Now

Learn how to develop and deploy more powerful, efficient, and secure IoT products with your own BG22 Thunderboard. Register for a free BG22 Virtual Workshop happening every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM CST.
Silicon Labs to Acquire Redpine Signals, Strengthening Wi-Fi Solutions

LeighPankonien | 03/72/2020 | 02:48 PM

As a leader in IoT wireless solutions, we're excited to offer you the broadest range of wireless connectivity options – and today we’re further strengthening our wireless portfolio.

We’re thrilled to announce that we entered into a definitive asset purchase agreement of Redpine Signals' ultra-low-power Wi-Fi and Bluetooth products. Their history of engineering excellence and world-class products aligns closely with our core values and will ultimately result in your success in the market.

By adding Redpine Signals' Wi-Fi 4, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth Classic products, we can now offer a rich and comprehensive Wi-Fi portfolio for the IoT, enabling you to get to market quickly. The potential for Wi-Fi to drive future IoT applications is tremendous, and going forward, low-power Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) is a key wireless technology. We look forward to accelerating our joint roadmap of Wi-Fi 6 that works in environments with hundreds or thousands of connected IoT devices. The additional Bluetooth Classic capabilities, including Extended Data Rate, will be ideal technology for your audio applications like voice assistants and smart speakers.

We value our customers, partners and engineering community, and we're eager to bring this innovative technology to you. Together, we are driving innovations for smart home, industrial IoT and commercial markets and building a smarter, more connected world.

You can learn more in our press release.
Using Wi-Fi for Low Power IoT Applications

LeighPankonien | 07/189/2019 | 02:54 PM
Wi-Fi may not be the first wireless technology one thinks of when considering low power IoT applications, but it should be. In this Q&A, Silicon Labs’ senior product manager for Wi-Fi products Siddharth Sundar discusses Wi-Fi's advantages and challenges that developers should keep in mind when choosing the right approach to wireless IoT.

What are the advantages to using Wi-Fi in low power IoT applications?

Being a widely deployed protocol with approximately 13 billion deployed devices means that Wi-Fi connectivity is available in most home and commercial/office environments. This avoids the need for a gateway and lets devices be cloud connected without needing new infrastructure. Wi-Fi is also highly interoperable, so you can have confidence that your devices will connect to most Wi-Fi networks out there. The higher data rates and range offered by Wi-Fi also enable a wider range of applications.

How does Wi-Fi compare to other IoT wireless communication protocols?

Wi-Fi has significantly higher data throughput than most other IoT wireless communication protocols – often 10-100x higher, allowing it to tackle higher throughput applications like audio and video. The broad deployment and range of Wi-Fi is also a significant benefit compared to many other protocols.

These benefits do come at a cost. Wi-Fi products typically have higher power consumption and higher implementation costs than IoT specific protocols like BLE and Zigbee, since the range and throughput offered by Wi-Fi demands higher design complexity. However, most of this design complexity can be managed through using pre-certified modules, and the cost and power consumption of Wi-Fi devices is decreasing to a point where it is competitive for many IoT applications.

Why implement 802.11n rather than 802.11ac for IoT platforms?

There are a few key reasons why 802.11n (Wi-Fi 4) may be better suited for most IoT applications than 802.11ac-based products (Wi-Fi 5). First, 802.11ac is based on 5 GHz versus 802.11n which supports both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. 2.4 GHz offers more range and better object penetration compared to 5 GHz. This is a key benefit in home environments with multiple walls and barriers.

Also, IoT Wi-Fi devices like Silicon Labs transceivers and modules are designed with enhanced RF selectivity to maintain reliable communication even in the presence of blockers such as nearby APs, 802.15.4 and Bluetooth devices. The below figure illustrates how advanced interference mitigation techniques help overcome the channel limitations related to the 2.4 GHz band. Learn more in Wi-Fi Learning Center.

One final point, the cost and power consumption of 802.11ac based systems is higher due to the higher protocol complexity. While it does provide enhanced throughput, the data rates provided by 802.11n are more than sufficient for most IoT applications including audio and security/IP camera video streaming.

What are some ways to reduce power requirements using Wi-Fi in IoT applications?

There are a number of ways to reduce power consumption using Wi-Fi:
1. Minimize the time spent in active TX and RX modes: With Wi-Fi’s high data rates, it may make sense to aggregate data and transmit/receive infrequently. It may also make sense to use higher data rates to transmit data more quickly and reduce the amount of time spent in high power transmit modes.
2. Choose the right devices: Not all Wi-Fi chipsets are made the same, so make sure you choose the devices with the lowest possible current consumption for the TX, RX, sleep and DTIM modes you are interested in. Watch out for datasheet tricks and make sure you are comparing apples to apples – this is especially important when looking at “sleep” and “associated” current definitions, as they are defined differently by vendors.
3. Think about the system level: The best power optimizations can be found at the system level, by seeing if you can turn off the radio and only power it on infrequently or using techniques like beacon skipping to reduce idle/sleep current if you are OK with tolerating latency.
4. Use the low power features available in the Wi-Fi standard: The Wi-Fi standard has a number of power optimizing features like DTIM sleep modes and Power Save that can save you a significant amount of power.
Are Wi-Fi solutions as integrated and compact as something like Bluetooth?

Wi-Fi solutions have traditionally been more complex and larger than solutions for Bluetooth. However, this gap is reducing, and there are increasingly smaller, optimized solutions available for Wi-Fi. This new class of IoT Wi-Fi devices takes advantage of Moore’s law to deliver higher performance, and eliminates size/cost adding features like MIMO. For example, Silicon Labs has a pre-certified Wi-Fi SiP module (including a Wi-Fi Radio, RF, XTAL and antenna) in a 6.5 mm x 6.5 mm package, which allows you to add Wi-Fi to small form factor devices.

How to use Bluetooth Low-Energy for Wi-Fi commissioning

Juan Benavides | 06/179/2019 | 03:10 PM

Introduction

If your Wi-Fi connected product is headless, then technically speaking, the obvious solution for exchanging the Wi-Fi credentials required to commission the product onto the customer’s Wi-Fi network is SoftAP.

SoftAP stands for Software Enabled Access Point. Some product manufacturers use SoftAP to create a temporary access point for the unique purpose of getting the customer’s Wi-Fi network name (SSID), security mode and password as illustrated in the following diagram:

**Figure 1** Wi-Fi commissioning using SoftAP

The customer connects his smartphone to the connected product’s SoftAP, and then uses either a mobile app or web page that displays the list of Access Points available to select and enter the password.

The connected product, once it has the customer’s Wi-Fi network information (SSID, Password and Security Mode) it connects to the Access Point.

The Access Point lets the connected product join the network and gain access to the Internet.

SoftAP used to be the Wi-Fi commissioning solution of choice for early IoT devices, but the two fundamental problems listed below have made it an unreliable solution:

Once the customer’s smartphone connects to a SoftAP, it will lose Internet connection.
If the customer’s smartphone loses Internet connection, then the phone’s logic may switch to a different Access Point and thus disconnect from the product.

In order to improve the out-of-box experience, product manufacturers have turned to Bluetooth as a solution for commissioning. For the Wi-Fi connected products that already support Bluetooth for a different purpose (e.g. streaming audio or video) then Bluetooth is the go-to mechanism for Wi-Fi commissioning as illustrated in the following diagram:

**Figure 2** Wi-Fi commissioning using Bluetooth

The customer installs the product manufacturer’s BLE Mobile Application and pairs with the connected product.

The mobile application displays a list of Access Points, the customer selects one of them and enters its password.

The connected product, once it has the customer’s Wi-Fi network information (SSID, Password and Security Mode) it connects to the Access Point.

The Access Point lets the connected product join the network and gain access to the Internet.

Because of how important the out-of-box experience is to a product’s success, many product manufacturers should consider going to the extremes of adding a Bluetooth chip exclusively to support the Wi-Fi commissioning of the product. Silicon Labs has BLE chips such as the EFR32MG12 that not only supports BLE but also other wireless protocols in the same chip.

Whatever your case may be, this blog shows you one simple way to use Bluetooth for Wi-Fi commissioning by covering the following topics:

BLE GATT Server Design
BLE Mobile Application
Theory of Operation

Prerequisites

It is assumed that you are familiar with Web Technologies such as HTML and JavaScript, and more important, that you are familiar with your own Wi-Fi and Bluetooth stacks regarding the following topics:

BLE Stack

Tool to create a BLE Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) database.
Callbacks to handle the BLE Characteristics Read and Write requests.
API to send Notifications to BLE clients.

Wi-Fi Stack

API to start a Wi-Fi scan
Callback to handle the Wi-Fi scan results
API to join an Access Point
API to store the Access Point’s credentials in non-volatile memory

Hardware Requirements

Any Wi-Fi chip/module (e.g. Silicon Labs WF200 module)
Any BLE chip/module (e.g. Silicon Labs EFR32MG12 chip)
Web Server to host a static web page (e.g. AWS account)

Software Requirements

BLE GATT Configurator
Google Chrome Web Browser

BLE GATT Server Design

Using your GATT Configuration tool, you need to create two BLE GATT Services:

Wi-Fi Scanner Service

This service allows a Bluetooth Client to initiate the scanning of visible Wi-Fi networks and its corresponding information such as SSID, Security Mode and Signal Strength.

Wi-Fi Configurator Service

Allows a Bluetooth Client to configure the connected product with the information necessary to connect to a Wi-FI Access Point (i.e. SSID, Security Mode and Password).

The table below shows an example of such GATT database. Notice that the UUIDs have been truncated for sake of simplicity. In reality, they should be 128-bit and it’s important you keep them documented in a table similar to this.

BLE GATT Configuration
Service		Characteristic
Name	UUID	Name	BLE Variable	UUID	Value Settings		Properties
Name	UUID	Name	BLE Variable	UUID	Type	Length	Read	Write	Indicate
Wi-Fi Configurator	2b42…5ab3	State	gattdb_wifi_ cfg_state	c519…07da	user	1	Yes	Yes	Yes
		SSID	gattdb_wifi_ cfg_ssid	a4a3…5da7	user	32	No	Yes	No
		Password	gattdb_wifi_ cfg_password	1d4b…c315	user	16	No	Yes	No
		Security	gattdb_wifi_ cfg_security	0420…278c	user	1	No	Yes	No
Wi-Fi Scanner	9b51…af7d	State	gattdb_wifi_ scan_state	cc89…81c8	user	1	Yes	Yes	Yes
		AP List Part 1	gattdb_wifi_ scan_ap_list_1	d07c…d141	user	255	Yes	No	No
		AP List Part 2	gattdb_wifi_ scan_ap_list_2	7e44…99d6	user	255	Yes	No	No
		AP List Part 3	gattdb_wifi_ scan_ap_list_3	d3c1…b004	user	255	Yes	No	No
		AP List Part 4	gattdb_wifi_ scan_ap_list_4	a2a0…7ee0	user	255	Yes	No	No
		AP List Part 5	gattdb_wifi_ scan_ap_list_5	8907…2823	user	255	Yes	No	No

Table 1 BLE GATT Configuration

Characteristics

Both services have a characteristic called State that is used to communicate the state of the corresponding operation. Therefore, both characteristics support Read, Write and Notification.

Here are the possible states:

// Wi-Fi Scanner State Machine States
const WIFI_SCANNER_STATE_IDLE     = 0;
const WIFI_SCANNER_STATE_SCAN     = 1;
const WIFI_SCANNER_STATE_SCANNING = 2;
const WIFI_SCANNER_STATE_SCANNED  = 3;
const WIFI_SCANNER_STATE_ERROR    = 4;

// Wi-Fi Config State Machine States
const WIFI_CONFIG_STATE_IDLE      = 0;
const WIFI_CONFIG_STATE_SAVE      = 1;
const WIFI_CONFIG_STATE_SAVING    = 2;
const WIFI_CONFIG_STATE_SAVED     = 3;
const WIFI_CONFIG_STATE_JOIN      = 4;
const WIFI_CONFIG_STATE_JOINING   = 5;
const WIFI_CONFIG_STATE_JOINED    = 6;
const WIFI_CONFIG_STATE_ERROR     = 7;

Code Listing 1 Wi-Fi Scanner and Wi-Fi Configurator Service States

The rest of characteristics are meant to exchange the actual data. Notice that the results from the Wi-Fi Scanner need to be communicated in multiple characteristics because of limitations on the maximum length of a BLE Characteristic’s value (i.e. 255 bytes).

Here is an example of the value exchanged by one of such characteristics. It is in JSON format and it is sorted by signal strength such that the closest access point is displayed on top:

[
 {
   "ssid": "WHIFERAPPS",
   "rcpi": "156",
   "sec": "2"
 },
 {
   "ssid": "SiliconLabsMobile",
   "rcpi": "129",
   "sec": "2"
 },
 {
   "ssid": "SiliconLabsGuest",
   "rcpi": "128",
   "sec": "2"
 },
 {
   "ssid": "SiliconLabs",
   "rcpi": "118",
   "sec": "2"
 },
 {
   "ssid": "DIRECT-bc-HP M203 LaserJet",
   "rcpi": "108",
   "sec": "2"
 },
 {
   "ssid": "GLC-WESTON",
   "rcpi": "86",
   "sec": "2"
 },
 {
   "ssid": "FCAAC",
   "rcpi": "81",
   "sec": "2"
 },
 {
   "ssid": "KENGOLENDESIGNS",
   "rcpi": "67",
   "sec": "2"
 },
 {
   "ssid": "DreamPlanTrack",
   "rcpi": "60",
   "sec": "2"
 },
 {
   "ssid": "Ameriprise Guest",
   "rcpi": "60",
   "sec": "2"
 },
 {
   "ssid": "Ketamine1290",
   "rcpi": "55",
   "sec": "2"
 }
]

Code Listing 2 List of Access Points in JSON format

BLE Mobile Application

For the BLE mobile application you have the choice of creating a native BLE application to support iOS and Android as a minimum or use Web Bluetooth.

Web Bluetooth allows a web browser (e.g. Google Chrome) to see and interact directly with Bluetooth devices as illustrated in the following image:

The BLE mobile application is actually a web page (i.e. HTML and JavaScript) and it's hosted in the product manufacturer's web server.

The customer opens a web browser (e.g. Google Chrome) and goes to the web server’s URL to download the web page.

The web page displays a list of nearby BLE devices and pairs with the BLE device you want to connect.

The advantages of Web Bluetooth over traditional native BLE mobile applications are:

One single web page hosted in a web server allows much easier updates.
One single web page can be used to support all mobile devices
One single web page can also be used not only to connect via Web Bluetooth but also to host in the connected device in SoftAP mode for a line of products that does not support BLE.
Developers with HTML and JavaScript skills are a lot easier to find than those with BLE Mobile App development skills for iOS and Android.

If Web Bluetooth is used instead of a traditional native BLE mobile app, then the revised block diagram for the Wi-Fi commissioning system using Web BLE would look like the following:

**Figure 4** Wi-Fi commissioning using Web BLE

The BLE mobile application is actually a web page (i.e. HTML and JavaScript) and it's hosted in the product manufacturer's web server. The web page allows the user to select from a list of Wi-Fi Access Points and enter the Access Point’s password.

The customer opens a web browser (i.e. Google Chrome) and goes to the web server’s URL to download the web page. The web page displays a list of nearby BLE Devices and pairs with the device you want to connect.

The web page sends a scan request to the BLE device which in turn calls the Wi-Fi stack APIs to scan and get the results. Finally, the web page displays a list of Access Points, the customer selects one of them and enters its password.

The connected product, once it has the customer’s Wi-Fi network information (SSID, Password and Security Mode) it connects to the Access Point.

The Access Point lets the connected product join the network and gain access to the Internet.

Theory of Operation

The diagram below summarizes the way the entire system works:

Connected Product (BLE GATT Server)		Smartphone (BLE Client)
		To initiate a Wi-Fi Scan procedure, the BLE Client sends a request to write: BLE GATT characteristic: gattdb_wifi_scan_state Value: WIFI_SCANNER_STATE_SCAN
The BLE GATT Server receives the request to write: BLE GATT characteristic: gattdb_wifi_scan_state Value: WIFI_SCANNER_STATE_SCAN
If the Wi-Fi Scanner State Machine's state is WIFI_SCANNER_STATE_IDLE then it will call the Wi-Fi API to start a scan
The Wi-Fi stack returns the scan results by calling a callback function. There, the list of access points is stored in a data structure with a global scope for general purposes
The Wi-Fi stack signals the completion of the scan procedure by calling another callback function
The embedded application prepares a multi-part JSON payload to be stored in a data structure with a global scope for BLE purposes
The embedded application sets the characteristic gattdb_wifi_scan_state to WIFI_SCANNER_STATE_SCANNED and notifies BLE clients that this characteristic has changed
		The BLE client receives the notification and sends requests to read the following BLE GATT characteristics: gattdb_wifi_scan_ap_list_1 gattdb_wifi_scan_ap_list_2 gattdb_wifi_scan_ap_list_3 gattdb_wifi_scan_ap_list_4 gattdb_wifi_scan_ap_list_5
The BLE GATT server receives the requests to read the following characteristics and responds with the values: gattdb_wifi_scan_ap_list_1 gattdb_wifi_scan_ap_list_2 gattdb_wifi_scan_ap_list_3 gattdb_wifi_scan_ap_list_4 gattdb_wifi_scan_ap_list_5
		The BLE client receives indication that the values of the characteristics have changed and calls the corresponding event handlers
		The handler for the event characteristic value changed parses the JSON payload into a JavaScript object, merges each part into a single array of access points, sorts the array by signal strength and populates the drop-down box
		The customer selects the Wi-Fi Access Point he wants to join from the web page's drop-down box and enters the password in an input box
		The BLE client sends a request to write the following BLE characteristics: gattdb_wifi_cfg_ssid gattdb_wifi_cfg_password gattdb_wifi_cfg_security
The BLE GATT server receives the requests to write to the following characteristics: gattdb_wifi_cfg_ssid gattdb_wifi_cfg_password gattdb_wifi_cfg_security
The BLE GATT server updates the variables only if there is not any Wi-Fi configuration in progress
The BLE GATT server changes the state of the Wi-Fi Configuration state machine to WIFI_CFG_STATE_ONGOING and sends notification to the BLE client that this state has changed
		The BLE client receives the notification and to save the Access Point credentials in non-volatile memory, it sends a request to write: BLE GATT characteristic: gattdb_wifi_cfg_state Value: WIFI_CFG_STATE_SAVE
The BLE GATT server receives the request to write: BLE GATT characteristic: gattdb_wifi_cfg_state Value: WIFI_CFG_STATE_SAVE and if not saving process in progress, it calls the API to store variables in non-volatile memory
The BLE GATT server changes the state of the Wi-Fi Configuration state machine to WIFI_CFG_STATE_SAVED and sends notification to the BLE client that this state has changed
		The BLE client receives the notification and to restart the Wi-Fi interface and connect to the new Access Point, it sends a request to write: BLE GATT characteristic: gattdb_wifi_cfg_state Value: WIFI_CFG_STATE_JOIN
The BLE GATT server receives the request to write: BLE GATT Characteristic: gattdb_wifi_cfg_state Value: WIFI_CFG_STATE_JOIN and calls the Wi-Fi API to join a network

Figure 5 Flow Diagram

Source Code

To keep the blog relevant to any Wi-FI and BLE stack, the source-code-level details on how to perform the different functions outlined in the previous flow diagram have been omitted.

The following Wi-Fi and BLE APIs are better described in their corresponding documentation and are beyond the scope of this blog:

Callbacks to handle the BLE Characteristics Read and Write requests.
API to send Notifications to BLE clients.
API to start a Wi-Fi scan
Callback to handle the Wi-Fi scan results
API to join an Access Point
API to store the Access Point’s credentials in non-volatile memory

The web page that makes the actual BLE mobile application however, is provided as an attachment (web_ble.zip) and if you like this approach, feel free to modify it and use it under the terms of the Apache License.

**Figure 6** Web Bluetooth Mobile Application

Security Considerations

Because of the sensitive nature of the information exchanged, you should consider using the security features of your Bluetooth stack:

Pairing
Bonding
Device Authentication
Encryption
Data Signing

Check your Bluetooth stack documentation for more information on these security features.

Day 1 Recap - It’s All About Connections

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What’s On Deck for Day 2

Mike Wilkinson CEO & Founder Paragon Innovations www.ParagonInnovations.com

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Introduction

Prerequisites

BLE Stack

Wi-Fi Stack

Hardware Requirements

Software Requirements

BLE GATT Server Design

Wi-Fi Scanner Service

Wi-Fi Configurator Service

BLE GATT Configuration

Characteristics

BLE Mobile Application

Theory of Operation

Connected Product

(BLE GATT Server)

Smartphone

(BLE Client)

Source Code

Security Considerations

Further Reading

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What is zero-programming, and why is it important to IoT developers?

What hardware platforms does Silicon Labs offer for IoT end node designs?

What is involved on the software side to get a mobile app running?

What type of tools are available to developers to take advantage of Wireless Xpress?

What about connecting to the cloud?

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Mike Wilkinson
CEO & Founder
Paragon Innovations
www.ParagonInnovations.com