Mesh network buildings automation platform supports up to 100 battery-powered wireless nodes per gateway

Low latency highly flexible modular mesh network platform is said to eliminate need for hard wiring and signal-boosting wireless repeaters

Finnish building automation specialist Produal, has developed what it describes as an advanced yet flexible and easy-to-install modular buildings measurement and control platform for measuring and controlling environmental parameters such as air quality, room temperature and humidity within buildings using Bluetooth mesh networking.

Combing a Nordic Semiconductor nRF52832 SoC-based NINA-B1 Bluetooth Low Energy module from u-blox and patented MiraOS mesh stack and embedded OS firmware from Sweden-based LumenRadio designed to maintain robust ultra low power mesh network wireless communication, the Produal Proxima platform supports up to 100 battery-powered wireless nodes under a single gateway, apparently with no need for signal-boosting wireless repeaters.

In operation, Produal says that the gateway securely routes data from the wireless nodes to a buildings management system or the Cloud. The company claims that set-up and maintenance is made simple by the fact that each node can be commissioned and configured using an Android smartphone installed with the Produal MyTool app, while over-the-air-updates can be performed automatically and remotely.

By eliminating the need for hard-wired cables and unnecessary repeaters installation, Produal says that costs are also minimized, while installation flexibility is maximized.

Petri Hakkarainen, Program Manager at Produal told IncisorTV, “The combination of LumenRadio’s reliable and self-healing wireless mesh networking technology using patented cognitive coexistence together with u-blox state-of-the-art modules based on Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF52832 SoC is unique in this commercial space. In commercial buildings you don’t want to interfere with the local Wi-Fi network and with MiraOS running on Nordic chipsets we got a solution that causes no interference. Something we have never seen before.”