bluetooth 5 vs 4.2

[mikkel1e]

Hi
i'm going to do a school project with bluetooth mesh network so i was wondering if bluetooth 5 supports it and what are the benefits of using bluetooth 5 over bluetooth 4.2
The reason I'm asking is because I have to buy a board so I know if I need one with 5 or 4.2
hope you can help
You may make a documentation for your claim

[MartinBL]

Hi,

The short answer is that you can use any device compatible with  BLE version 4.2 or above. 

The longer answer is that BLE 5 devices are backwards compatible and support all the features you will find in BLE 4.2. When a BLE 5 device tries to connect with a 4.2 device they exchange information about what features each device supports and then decide upon the "least common denominator". If you want to use a Nordic device I suggest that you chose a device from the nRF52 family. You can find more information about Nordic's mesh solution here: nRF5 SDK for Mesh.

[mikkel1e]

Why use 5 if 4.2 supports the same, does 5 not have some better features like range but thanks 

[leonwj]

hello mikkelle,

The Nordic Mesh SDK v1.0.1 is compliant with the Bluetooth Mesh Specification v1.0 and as such it supports the features inherent in BLE v4.2...

The backstory is that when the Bluetooth SIG Mesh Working Group set out to implement the mesh standard they had a number of key design choices to make. One of those was which BLE version to base the mesh standard on. So the choice was:

(1) Base it on Bluetooth LE v5.0 (and in doing so take advantage of increased range, increased speed, encoded PHY, utilize data channels for advertising etc.) BUT exclude the millions of Bluetooth v4.x radios currently in the marketplace (in phones etc.)

or

(2) Base it on Bluetooth LE v.4.x, thereby allowing all the (millions of) current Bluetooth v4.x radios in use to be able to take part in Bluetooth mesh networks. This option would also allow Bluetooth v5.0 radios to take part in mesh networks since Bluetooth LE v5.0 is backwards compatible with v4.2 (as indicated by MartinBL and David Erwin above)

The Mesh Working Group chose to go with option (2), therefore any compliant (and fully interoperable) mesh stack from any vendor (whether it runs on a Bluetooth v5.0 (e.g. nrf52840) or Bluetooth v4.2 radio) will only utilize the inherent features of Bluetooth v4.2. 

I hope that clarifies things for you.

Regards,

[mikkel1e]

Thanks, but just to be sure, e.g. Nrf52840 there use bluetooth 5, Will it also use bluetooth 5 features doing mesh, it is just too be sure 

[leonwj]

hello mikkelle,

No, the nrf52840 will NOT use any Bluetooth 5 features when operating on a Bluetooth SIG compliant mesh network.

Regards,

[mikkel1e]

Thanks, but okay do you have any documentation about it, because i have to use it in my project. But i dont understand why they make a new bluetooth 5 if you cant use it in any og the new features in mesh 

[leonwj]

hello mikkelle,

At this point, I'm not sure that I can help you any further other than to suggest that you re-read (fairly slowly) all the previous responses that you have received in this thread. After absorbing the above, if you are still extremely keen on using any Bluetooth 5 related feature(s), then I can only direct you to Nordic's proprietary Instaburst feature, but at that point you will no longer be developing a compliant or interoperable Bluetooth SIG mesh solution.

Regards,

[mikkel1e]

cause i want to be sure what you are writing really is because i have read some articles around that nrft52840 uses bt 5 in mesh

Byt thanks for The help 

[leonwj]

hello mikkelle,

Do you mind posting the links to the articles that you have read that explicitly state that Bluetooth 5 specific features are used in the SIG Mesh standard.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

[rperkins]

Thanks @leonwj for your detailed explanation...

btw - I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for @mikkel1e to post those links to the 'articles' that they supposedly read. It seems they continually ask the same question on different threads hoping to get the answer they want to hear.

[mikkel1e]

Yes, because we wanted to make sure we did not write something wrong in our assignment, we also asked him to be sure

https://www.mouser.dk/applications/bluetooth-5-mesh-networking-standard/

[leonwj]

hello mikkel1e,

I can only suggest that you re-read the article in the link that you posted (fairly slowly)... although it attempts to conflate the Bluetooth mesh and Bluetooth 5 standards, in no way does it state that Bluetooth 5 specific features are used in the Bluetooth Mesh. In fact, it's really about Bluetooth 5 with references to mesh thrown in (I would imagine to increase its hit count). Hopefully wishing for certain features to be implemented doesn't always help and at worst case you have the full specification to fall back on should you be in any doubt in the future. Additionally, most of the current vendor mesh stacks out there (Nordic, SiLabs, Zephyr to name a few) are published with the full source code available, so reviewing the code is also an option.

Nonetheless in this case, I believe that you have been corrected in your misconception regarding the mesh standard using Bluetooth 5 specific features by more than one person in this forum.

Take Care and good luck with your assignment.

Regards,