Access Points & Gateway Technology
EtherBridge™ |
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| BR-EB-01
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EtherBridge Bluetooth 4.0 Smart Ready Wireless DHCP Ethernet Gateway. Only available to OEMs in volume.
Plugs into existing WiFi or Ethernet Hub
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Powered over USB
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Supports Bluetooth 4.0 Dual Mode (Low energy and legacy)
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Easily create custom dynamic web pages
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Status LED for Ethernet activity and Bluetooth connection
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Supports E-mail notifications as well as a Dynamic DNS connection
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Contains BlueBridge® technology
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No cost development environment with ample room for custom application
BR-EB-01-PPP
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Flashed programmed as a BT2.1 Internet Protocol (IP) PPP Router/Bridge
BR-EB-01-PPP IP Router/Bridge. (166KB)
$69/unit for either configuration
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Bluetooth and Smart Homes
Bluetooth technology is by far the most successful of any of the short range wireless standards. Bluetooth was conceived with the mobile phone as the center of the network. As noted on the Bluetooth Special Interest Group website, Bluetooth has been around for just over ten years (twice as long as ZigBee) and outsells all of the other short range standards put together, with over 1 billion chips shipped every year. The very first Bluetooth products can still communicate with new ones that consumers buy today – something that neither 802.11 nor ZigBee can claim. Equally important, over the decade it has been shipping, it has evolved to address all of the key requirements of the smart home market.
- Robustness: Bluetooth technology is the only Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrun (FHSS) standard. That makes it reliable within the home environment where the spectrum is unpredictable and likely to get more congested over the life of the meter. It is more resilient that either ZigBee or Wi-Fi and far more difficult to intercept, meaning that it is much less susceptible to hacking attacks.
- Coexistence: Bluetooth technology is the only wireless standard that includes coexistence mechanisms to maintain performance in noisy environments. That means that it continues to work when new radios are introduced into the home.
- Long Range: The latest Bluetooth chips provide ranges as good as any other 2.4GHz technology, at significantly lower operating power.
- IP support: Bluetooth technology already has IP support (which the smart metering industry requires) with its BNEP protocol.
- Proven security: Bluetooth technology has mature security that has evolved to cope with a variety of security attacks, along with well tested implementations that have proven to be resistant to hacking.
- Licensing: The royalty-free license model of the Bluetooth SIG extends to all versions of the technology.