The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) plans to make enhancements for the technology focused squarely on increasing its Internet of Things (IoT) functionality. Coming next year, the Bluetooth advancements include longer range, higher speeds and mesh networking.

"There is significant demand from our members and the industry at large to enhance Bluetooth with the new capabilities we’re announcing today," said Toby Nixon, chairman of the Bluetooth SIG Board of Directors. "Current projections put the market potential for IoT between $2 and $11.1 trillion by 2025. The technical updates planned for Bluetooth technology in 2016 will help make these expectations a reality and accelerate growth in IoT."

The range of Bluetooth Smart, set to increase up to 4x, will transform smart home and infrastructure applications, and will deliver a more robust connection for full-home or outdoor use cases. A 100% increase in speed, without increasing energy consumption, will enable faster data transfers in critical applications, such as medical devices, increasing responsiveness and lowering latency. And mesh networking will enable Bluetooth devices to connect together in networks that can cover an entire building or home, opening up home and industrial automation applications.

Bluetooth SIG member tools, like the recently launched Bluetooth Developer Studio, and training programs will be updated to ensure developer support for these new IoT features.