Is there a sample application of nRF5340-DK and 7002-EK doing WiFi and BLE/Mesh ?

[TexasLance]

Hi,

I got the nRF5340-DK + 7002-EK running your WiFi Fundamentals HTTP server last weekend. I connected the 5340+7002 to my wifi network and got an IP address. I also opened up a port on my wifi router so that the system could be contacted from the outside world. That all worked great.

I later added some BLE Mesh code to the application, and thus started my journey down the road of some new areas for me...

1. Working with dual cores. Specifically, making sure that BLE was set up to allow extended advertising for Mesh on the net core. I got that working after looking at support issues and samples. (All of my earlier work with your products has been with the 52840-DK.)

2. Wifi & BLE Mesh co-existence, which I never got working :-(

I did look at the Wifi + BLE Co-existence sample (docs.nordicsemi.com/.../README.html) and gleaned some good things from it.

At a high level, here is what would happen when I ran the WiFi Fundamentals HTTP server (with added BLE Mesh code):

1. Wifi shell came up fine.

2. I'd connect wifi to my router. Still fine.

3. Bluetooth and Mesh code executed next and I could provision a Mesh node from nRF Mesh on my phone. But once Bluetooth was running, the http server stopped responding and eventually the http connection to the router would drop.

This was true even if I commented out most of the Bluetooth code and only left the initial bt_enable function call to initialize Bluetooth. Once Bluetooth was in the picture, wifi and http went away immediately or soon.

4. I found a handful of support issues that helped, plus the wifi + BLE co-existence sample, plus advice from 4 AI's (ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, and Claude). All of this pointed to radio conflicts, resource conflicts (like memory or threads), or both.

5. I think I got the radio co-existence issues worked out after looking over your co-existence sample. Maybe. I also maybe solved at least some other resource issues, but I ran out of time on this and had to just give up.

I'm wondering if you have a sample somewhere that utilizes an nRF5340-DK + 7002-EK shield to run wifi + BLE (maybe Mesh) at the same time. I think a sample of Mesh Client(s) sending data to the world via wifi (using http or mqtt) would be really useful (unless there is some other architecture that most customers use to get data from Mesh sensors out to the world).

Thanks!

[tesc]

Hi,

Although not Bluetooth Mesh, we do have the Wi-Fi: Bluetooth LE coexistence sample, which supports your setup of an nRF5340 DK with 7002 shield. I highly recommend looking into that one. Bluetooth Mesh uses the SoftDevice Controller under the hood, i.e. the normal BLE stack in nRF Connect SDK.

Please note that for Bluetooth Mesh, normal nodes (not GATT devices, and also not Low Power Nodes,) wants to be in RX at as near 100 % duty cycle as possible. (That is, when not sending data out, or in BLE connection events, it scans at 100 % duty cycle.) This does have some implications, when mixing Bluetooth Mesh with other technologies, since any time spent for other protocols will lead to less listening time for Bluetooth Mesh - which affects packet loss. Depending on priorities and requirements, it might also lead to less time for the other protocols.

I think a sample of Mesh Client(s) sending data to the world via wifi (using http or mqtt) would be really useful (unless there is some other architecture that most customers use to get data from Mesh sensors out to the world).

We don't have such a sample at the moment, no. Neither do we have any similar samples that I am aware of. Given that we do have both BLE and Wi-Fi, it may make sense to combine the two for an SDK sample showcasing that scenario.

When we haven't done so yet, it might be in part due to resource constraints (gateways tend to require external memory and/or more powerful devices), in part low demand (compared to general (non-gateway) Bluetooth Mesh devices), and possibly other reasons. For input on and questions about future plans and roadmaps, please reach out to our regional sales team for your area. Either through the "Sales related questions" form at https://www.nordicsemi.com/About-us/Contact-Us, or directly if you are already in contact.

Regards,
Terje

[TexasLance]

Hi, I appreciate the info.

--- Lance