To keep up with the snowballing demands of the IoT, the various wireless personal area network (WPAN) standards are having to evolve rapidly. Established platforms like Bluetooth, and new challengers like Thread, need to remain relevant to consumer and service provider requirements, and also to outdo one another to secure the scale and reach that are any standard’s lifeblood. The Bluetooth SIG, which defines the specifications, is previewing upcoming features which will be included in its low power strand, Bluetooth LE (BLE) next year. These will increase the range, speed and meshing capabilities of the standard and make it more competitive against Thread and ZigBee, the other two main challengers for the smart home network (and beyond, in the case…