Mesh SDK Architecture?

[ianwirght]

Hello,

As we can see, the mesh stack is a totally new stack which is independent of traditional BLE stack. Could you please explain why to design like this? I found there are other solution in the market which considers the mesh stack as a BLE app or a BLE profile. Is there any benefit of the architecture? Efficiency?

Best Regards， Ian

[Hung Bui]

Hi Ian,

Our Bluetooth Mesh stack and SDK are still underdevelopment and remains in alpha phase. It can be changed.

We do use the BLE stack in the SDK. You need to flash S132 or S140 to be able to run Mesh example.

But Bluetooth Mesh technology is not part of BLE technology or as application layer or profile layer of a BLE stack. If you have a look here. You can find that Bluetooth Mesh only share the two lowest layer: Link layer and physical layer with BLE.

Anything above that is different.

So there is no point integrate Mesh into current BLE stack.

We are using our BLE stack in Mesh SDK just to support (in the future) GATT bearer and to use the timeslot mechanism supported in the BLE Stack. Also it would be easier to integrate Mesh into current BLE application and vise versa, for instant the beacon example in Mesh SDK.

[Hung Bui]

Timeslot is the mechanism where you request the softdevice's scheduler to guarantee a period of time that you can access all the peripheral blocked by the softdevice, such as Radio, Flash, Timer 0.

You can have a look at the softdevice device specification for more information, look for "Multiprotocol Support" chapter.

What you described in your application, advertising, scanning, serial TX. It was all executed by calling the softdevice API, correct ?

How often do you advertise ? How did you configure scan parameter (scan window, scan interval) ?