Combining Bluetooth Mesh and KNX: The Best of Both Worlds

Bluetooth Mesh is a promising wireless technology for building automation. At the same time, KNX is a well-established building automation system that has a huge installed base. Specifically, the strength of KNX lies in its proven semantic models. These models are the foundation for interoperability and the implementation of larger systems. The presented project demonstrates how a user can easily connect a new Bluetooth Mesh system to a well-established, wired KNX building automation system. Notably, the project achieves this through a self-developed stateless gateway, which allows controlling Bluetooth Mesh devices from the KNX network and vice versa. As a result, it is possible to leverage existing management systems from KNX building automation systems in Bluetooth Mesh networks. Furthermore, the project validates this concept using Home Assistant, a well-known open source home automation platform and demonstrates, that heterogeneous KNX and Bluetooth Mesh systems are feasible.