Difference between 4 and 5 mesh networks

[bachgroupMM]

Hi,
Just to clarify, is there a difference between a mesh network containing purely Bluetooth 5 nodes and a network containing purely Bluetooth 4 node?

I am referring to all the claims for higher speed and larger range in Bluetooth 5 or is this only when using LE without mesh?

Also, does the sdk for mesh use 4 or 5? :)

[leonwj]

hello bachgroupMM,

I posted this elsewhere but will reply here for clarity...

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.

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. 

Obviously, non-Bluetooth mesh solutions can take advantage of the higher speed, range, advertising extensions when run on a Bluetooth v5.x radio.

I hope that clarifies things for you.

Regards,