Lighting vs IT

Wireless gateway: photo by Intel

Commercial lighting control systems are now networked. And a significant part of the commissioning process is done using a PC or (better) a tablet. This has become a routine task but it comes with a significant friction caused by a device called gateway.

PCs and tablets speak Ethernet or WiFi. Lighting systems usually don't: they use their own networking protocols. Some examples are DALI (2-wire bus) or wireless based on the 802.15.4 radio. Neither PCs nor tablets speak natively DALI nor 802.15.4, so a gateway device is used to translate one (Ethernet) to the other (DALI or 802.15.4).

It seems easy but is not. The reason: the gateway (as any Ethernet device) must be connected to a switch. A tablet wants to use a WiFi access point that is connected to this switch too. Both the gateway and the tablet need to be assigned an address. And it all means we have two devices that need to be connected to the building's computer network. And this is a problem. A big problem.

Lighting in a building is usually managed by the property manager. Networks are owned and managed by tenants. And tenants do not want to allow any unknown set of devices on their LAN. The reason is security. LANs are guarded and managed and a typical Ethernet socket in a wall is rarely active. It takes days, weeks or even months to get an approval from the IT staff to connect to the corporate LAN. Also, quite often, lighting systems are commissioned way before the LAN infrastructure is up an running.

Yes, adding a lighting gateway and connecting to it over LAN is a real problem.

What surprises me when I listen to people pitching the improvements in the (very tedious and labor intensive) lighting commissioning process, they usually ASSUME the gateway is already connected. How easy! Unfortunately this is a false assumption and possibly this gateway is the biggest elephant in the connected lighting room. Nobody wants to admit it is there and we all pretend we don't see it.

Bluetooth to the rescue!

"No need for a gateway" has been the pitch behind Bluetooth mesh since the beginning. But that was usually considered with relation to residential systems and the burden of installing a gateway in a home. Which is peanuts, compared to installing a gateway in a commercial building.

With Bluetooth mesh, the whole task of forming the network is done with a phone or tablet app. But there is no for any gateway at all! The commissioning device has a Bluetooth radio and can talk directly to light fixtures and sensors and can form a mesh network. Bluetooth liberates smart lighting systems from the IT bonds. Hands back lighting into the hands of lighting contractors and commissioners and leaves them free from even thinking of the IT people. And IT is no longer bothered with smart lighting.

Of course - if needed - a gateway may be added at any time later, to facilitate cloud connection and remote management. But adding it later is a different story. This is usually done after tenants move into the building and even if the process takes some time (which it does), it does not block anyone from doing their job and completing the project.