openthread/tools/tcat_ble_client

BBTC Client

Overview

This is a Python implementation of Bluetooth-Based Thread Commissioning (BBTC) client, based on Thread's TCAT (Thread Commissioning over Authenticated TLS) functionality.

Installation

If you don't have the poetry module installed (check with poetry --version), install it first using:

python3 -m pip install poetry

poetry install

This will install all the required modules to a virtual environment, which can be used by calling poetry run <COMMAND> from the project directory.

Usage

To see the supported commandline arguments of BBTC client, use:

poetry run python3 bbtc.py --help

In order to connect to a TCAT device, enter the project directory and run:

poetry run python3 bbtc.py {<device specifier> | --scan}

where <device specifier> can be:

• --name <NAME> - name advertised by the device
• --mac <ADDRESS> - physical address of the device's Bluetooth interface

Using the --scan option will scan for every TCAT device and display them in a list, to allow selection of the target.

For example:

poetry run python3 bbtc.py --name 'Thread BLE'

The application will connect to the first matching device discovered and set up a secure TLS channel. The user is then presented with the CLI.

Usage with a specific TCAT Commissioner identity

The TCAT Commissioner's certificate specifies what permissions it has obtained for specific features of managing a TCAT Device. By default, the identity in the auth directory is used. In order to use a different TCAT Commissioner certificate (identity), use the --cert_path argument, as follows:

poetry run python3 bbtc.py --cert_path <certs-path> {<device specifier> | --scan}

where <certs-path> is the directory where the private key, certificate, and CA certificate of the TCAT Commissioner are stored.

For example to use a pre-configured identity CommCert2 (related to Thread certification tests):

poetry run python3 bbtc.py --cert_path ./auth-cert/CommCert2 --name 'Thread BLE'

The auth-cert directory contains some other identities too, for testing purposes. Refer to Thread TCAT test plan documents for details.

See GENERATING_CERTIFICATES.md for details on generating own certificates.

TCAT Commissioner CLI Commands

The application supports the following interactive CLI commands:

• help - Display available commands.
• commission - Commission the device with current dataset.
• thread start - Enable Thread interface.
• thread stop - Disable Thread interface.
• hello - Send "hello world" application data and read the response.
• exit - Close the connection and exit.
• dataset - View and manipulate current dataset. Use dataset help for more information.