Chargifi Networking Requirements

Bluetooth

A wireless technology standard for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances using short-wavelength UHF radio waves.

Chargifi Cloud Gateways use Bluetooth technology to exchange data between Chargifi Neutrons and the Gateway.

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Bluetooth Low Energy

Abbreviation: Bluetooth LE

A wireless personal area network technology designed and marketed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (Bluetooth SIG) aimed at novel applications in the healthcare, fitness, beacons, security, and home entertainment industries.

Compared to Classic Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy is intended to provide considerably reduced power consumption and cost while maintaining a similar communication range.

Mobile operating systems including iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry, as well as macOS, Linux, Windows 8 and Windows 10, natively support Bluetooth Low Energy.

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Bluetooth Mesh Networking

A wireless communication system that facilitates many-to-many (m:m) device communications and is suitable for controlling, monitoring, and automating systems in which potentially tens to thousands of devices need to communicate with one another reliably and securely.

Chargifi uses Bluetooth mesh networking for its Cloud Gateways solution.

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Bluetooth Range

Chargifi Cloud Gateways use Bluetooth mesh networking for Neutrons to communicate with one another and with a central gateway,

Therefore, the units all need to be within Bluetooth range of one another to be able to communicate and prevent nodes from becoming isolated.

The maximum Bluetooth range for this kind of installation is less than 10 metres.

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Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

Abbreviation: DCHP

A network management protocol that is needed for deploying Chargifi Spots so that the DHCP server can assign dynamically a separate IP address to either the Spot or the Cloud Gateway depending on which networking option is being deployed.

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Hop

In computer networking, including the Internet, a hop occurs when a packet is passed from one network segment to the next. Data packets pass through routers as they travel between source and destination. The hop count refers to the number of intermediate devices through which data must pass between source and destination.

You can use hopping to ensure all the Chargifi Neutrons are properly provisioned to the Cloud Gateway in a new deployment that is based on Bluetooth mesh networking.

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Internet Protocol Address

Abbreviation: IP address

A 32-bit number that uniquely identifies the Chargifi Neutron or Cloud Gateway on a TCP/IP network.

For Chargifi Cloud deployments, you'll require the same number of IP addresses in your subnet as you plan to have either of the following:

• Spots (if deploying to a Wi-Fi-enabled network in which each Spot requires a separate IP address of its own)
• Cloud Gateways (if deploying to a Bluetooth mesh network in which each Cloud Gateway requires a separate IP address of its own)

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Node

A device that is not a member of a mesh network is known as an unprovisioned device.

A device that is a member of a mesh network is known as a node.

In the Chargifi Platform, a node refers to the following once they have been connected to the Bluetooth mesh network:

• Chargifi Neutron
• Cloud Gateway 

In a Bluetooth a mesh network, the nodes are interconnected with as many other nodes as possible to improve communication between the nodes and Chargifi Cloud.

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Whitelisted MAC Address

A mechanism for filtering that permits our Cloud Gateways and Chargifi Neutrons access to your Wi-Fi network.

Whitelisted MAC addresses are allowed through any port on the device. 

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Wired Equivalence Privacy

Abbreviation: WEP

WEP is a security protocol, specified in the IEEE Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) standard, 802.11b, that is designed to provide a wireless local area network (WLAN) with a level of security and privacy comparable to what is usually expected of a wired LAN.

Chargifi Spots can connect to WEP, WPA/2 Personal, and WPA/2 PSK Wi-Fi networks. Currently, our Spots don’t support enterprise-level Wi-Fi authentication - 802.1x - which requires you to log in with a user name and password as well as the customary SSID. 

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Wi-Fi Protected Access

Abbreviation: WPA

A security protocol and security certification program that was developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance to secure wireless computer networks.

Chargifi requires one of the following types of Wi-Fi networks:

- WEP

- WPA/2 Personal or PSK

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Wi-Fi Protected Access 2

Abbreviation: WPA2

A security protocol and security certification program that was developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance to secure wireless computer networks.

Chargifi requires one of the following types of Wi-Fi networks:

• WEP
• WPA
• WPA2

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Wi-Fi Protected Access 3

Abbreviation: WPA3

Chargifi Cloud does not support WPA3.

Chargifi requires one of the following types of Wi-Fi networks:

• WEP
• WPA
• WPA2

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Wi-Fi Protected Access-Enterprise

Abbreviation: WPA-Enterprise

Chargifi Spots do not support enterprise Wi-Fi authentication such as WPA-802.1x mode. WPA-Enterprise mode is not suitable for headless IoT devices such as Chargifi Neutrons and Cloud Gateways. The EAP types that are used for authentication and the range of different RADIUS servers on the market are varied. We, therefore, require one of the following types of networks:

• WEP
• WPA/2 Personal or PSK