Develop of ARM Mbed OS support for BlueNRG-2, a SoC capable to run applications based on Bluetooth Low Energy protocol.

Several market analysis concerning the future of Internet forecast a strong increase in terms of connected devices. Most of daily use objects (domestic appliances, wearable devices, etc.) are becoming “smart” and in turn connected to the network, and they will create the so-called Internet of Things. Most of these devices will be battery-powered, in need for a low power oriented design. Looking at the current scenario a potentially valid enabling connectivity technology seems to be Bluetooth Low Energy. This work takes inspiration from the following question: “how the market leading companies are planning to drive this new market?”. The aim of this thesis is thus to understand, by looking at the future in which this technology will be to the attention of many developers, how simple, fast and low cost could be a design based on it. A possible answer to the latter question is: provide rapid prototyping (with potential validity at release time), cross-platform, open source, connected to cloud. Once identified a platform compliant to this research proposal (ARM Mbed OS), it has been implemented on a product providing connectivity in compliance with the mentioned “low cost” requirement (STMicroelectronics BlueNRG-2). This study however, because of its experimental purpose, is not intended to contextualise the discussed technology and forecast the trend in the smart objects market (only assumption could be made), due to the fact that it is still very uncertain. It is intended to be a design of one valid proposal between possible solution, but further future studies are required to determine the true market location of such a solution. What is hoped to last long and to draw inspiration for other studies are the idea and the methodology regarding this work.