Whether you are connecting to Bluetooth headphones, sending a text message, or opening a garage door, you are already familiar with the benefits of wireless technologies. While most of us readily adopt and benefit from wireless technologies in our personal lives, fully embracing wireless solutions in business can be daunting and complicated. Getting up to speed with wireless concepts is the first step in understanding whether wireless technology can work as well for your business as it does for your personal life.

This learning guide focuses on the wireless protocols most commonly found in networked lighting systems in the North American market including: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Zigbee, and similar proprietary protocols. Below we share five highlights from the learning guide.

A gateway is a hardware device that connects two networks with different protocols. It effectively acts as a “gate” between the two networks. In networked lighting systems, gateways are the bridge between LE protocols, Wi-Fi, Application Program Interfaces (APIs), and the broader internet.

Point of Clarification: Networked lighting systems have required both LE protocols and Wi-Fi to achieve capabilities beyond simple room-based control. While Wi-Fi is still required for several key features, recent developments with BLE mesh suggest the role of LE protocols will continue to grow.

Here’s how it works for room-based systems or enterprise systems.