Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)

Email alerts

Additional details about each Bluetooth device can be seen on the client details page. The name of the Bluetooth client can also be edited for easier tracking. Email alerts can be enabled to trigger when the device becomes visible by the access point and when the device is no longer visible.

Figure 5: BLE client details

Enable Bluetooth Scanning

Using the physical placement of the access points from the Map & Floorplan on the Dashboard, the Meraki cloud estimates the location of the client. The geo-location coordinates (latitude, longitude) and X,Y location data accuracy can vary based on a number of factors and should be considered a best effort estimate. AP placement, environmental conditions, and client device orientation can influence X,Y estimation; experimentation can help improve the accuracy of results or determine a maximum acceptable uncertainty for data points.

 

To enable BLE devices to be located, enable the BLE scanning radio on the access points. BLE Scanning is enabled in the Wireless > Configure > IoT Radio Settings page by selecting "On" in the Scanning section, as shown in Figure 3 below:

Figure 3: Enabling BLE scanning

BLE Scanning API

 

Bluetooth API Data Elements

Enable the Scanning API with BLE Scanning, and the Location API will include both WiFi and Bluetooth devices seen by the access points in a single data feed. The event type BluetoothDevicesSeen is used to identify the observations from the Bluetooth radio. Below are the JSON formats used by the Location API for Bluetooth devices.

 

HTTP POST body format

{
   "version":"2.0",
   "secret":<string>,
   "type":"BluetoothDevicesSeen",
   "data":<event-specific data>
}

 

Bluetooth API Data Format

{
  "apMac": <string>,
  "apFloors": [<string>, ...],
  "apTags": [<string, ...],
  "observations": [
    {
      "location": {
        "lat": <decimal>,
        "lng": <decimal>,
        "unc": <decimal>,
        "x": [<decimal>, ...],
        "y": [<decimal>, ...]
      },
      "seenTime": <string>,
      "clientMac": <string>,
      "seenEpoch": <integer>,
      "rssi": <integer>,
    },...
  ]
}

Enable Scanning API 

For comprehensive API documentation, steps to configure the Scanning API and sample source code, please visit our Developer Hub

Privacy for Scanning API

For more details regarding Privacy for Scanning API, please refer to Location and Privacy.

Configuring Beacons

Beacons are periodic signals emitted using Bluetooth Low Energy radio technology and conforming to a specific data packet format. The data packet looks like this:

Field	Preamble	Access Address	Header	MAC Address	Beacon prefix	UUID	Major	Minor	TX Power	CRC
Size	1B	4B	2B	6B	9B	16B	2B	2B	1B	3B

The Preamble, Access Address, Header, MAC Address, and CRC will be set as part of the BLE radio’s frame construction. The TX Power is a calibrated indicator of the RSSI of the transmitted measured at a 1m distance; this can be used for rough estimation of proximity to the device emitting the Beacons.

UUID, Major, and Minor are fields defined by the Beacon network administrator. Typically, an organization will define a unique identifier for their habitual usage: the UUID. All Beacons deployed throughout their locations would have the same UUID.

To differentiate Beacons at different offices or store locations, and Beacons within different areas of those locations, the Major and Minor fields are used. For example, a chain restaurant might decide that all restaurants within a city will share a Major, and each restaurant within that city will have a different Minor.

Meraki APs with an integrated Bluetooth Low Energy radio can emit Beacons with following technical specifications:

• Beacon interval: 100 ms (best effort)
• Transmit power: 0 dBm

 

Beacon mode can be enabled under Wireless > Configure > IoT Radio Settings by selecting "On" beside Advertising in the Beaconing section, as show in Figure 1 below:

Figure 4: Enabling BLE Beacon advertising
 

Once advertising is enabled, the UUID, Major, and Minor fields of the Beacon frame can be set. The Major/Minor values can either be set automatically and uniquely assigned on a per-AP basis for the network, or can be assigned globally for all AP's in the network. When advertising is enabled, Unique mode will be the default setting.

 

Unique mode will automatically assign the same major value and unique minor values to each AP in the network. If Unique mode is configured on a parent template network, then the networks bound to that template will assign unique major values per network, and unique minor values per AP within those networks. 

 

Saving these settings will activate the BLE Beacon on the Meraki AP’s integrated Bluetooth Low Energy radio.

Figure 5: Setting the BLE Beacon UUID/Major/Minor

 

Figure 6: Assigning the Unique Major/Minor Values

 

Figure 7: Assigning the Non-unique Major/Minor Values

 

Viewing Beacon Values

After the unique or non-unique values have been configured, you can view the assigned values from the Wireless > Configure > IoT Radio Settings, as shown in the above Figures 6 and 7. Additionally, these values can be retrieved via the Dashboard API as shown below:

curl -L -H 'X-Cisco-Meraki-API-Key: <key>' -X GET -H 'Content-Type: application/json' 'https://dashboard.meraki.com/api/v1/...orkId]/devices'

Figure 8: API response after querying the Dashboard API to list the devices in a network