Mesh API for PB-GATT provisioning, proxy, Sample code

Question

Hello, 
 I had a look at the brand new mesh 2.0 SDK, this looks very promising. I've been looking for some protocol description for the GATT connection to do the provisioning and the proxy functions, maybe I just hadn't looked at the right place, but I have no idea which data I have to send over the GATT from a samrtphone or a linux host to start the provisioning and talk to the mesh nodes. Is this a special API, or is this protocol the part of the bluetooth spec.? Could I use some Android-apps from another vendors to get it running? Did anyone got some sample code to get the mesh funtionality to work on a linux system? Will nordic deplay a sample Android-app for the mesh? How can I test the mesh setup? 
 I would like to start with one node which is talking to the linux system. Then I would like to do a provisioning and take a dedicated mesh-node into the system, and the next and the next... Then I have to communicate with all the provisioned nodes. What do I have to do to get such a setup working? 
 Thanks in advance, and have a nice weekend...

Thomas Stenersen · Answer

Hi rolliG, 
 Glad to hear you&rsquo;re interested in the nRF5 SDK for Mesh. First off, you can find information about the GATT connection in Bluetooth Mesh in Chapter 6 and 7 of the Mesh Profile specification . It&rsquo;s not a bad read, but to summarize it, the data exchanged over the GATT connection is just raw Bluetooth Mesh data. I.e., the GATT connection is just acting as a dumb transport and you have to have a full mesh stack on both sides of the connection. 
 We&rsquo;re in the process of releasing apps for Android and iOS , but in the meantime you can use the Light switch provisioning example to quickly get started. 
 We also provide an interactive Python interface to our serial example which has provisioning and configuration capabilities. Follow the Interactive provisioning and configuration tutorial to get started. 
 Another alternative is to use BlueZ . BlueZ uses the PB-GATT and GATT proxy to provision and configure devices. You&rsquo;ll need to download the latest version and compile it from source, the version shipped with the most common Linux distros isn&rsquo;t usually very up to date. Follow the installation guide, as far as I remember, this should work: 
 cd bluez-5.49
./configure --enable-mesh
make
make install
 
 Move to the mesh directory and run meshctl . Note that you might to install a few build dependencies in order to compile it from source. 
 If you don&rsquo;t have a Bluetooth controller that supports BLE, you can use a devkit as a HCI controller by following this guide: https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/b/blog/posts/nrf5x-support-within-the-zephyr-project-rtos 
 BlueZ&rsquo;s meshctl is very limited compared to the Interactive PyACI and does not support the full range of Configuration Client commands. Extending it is also more difficult. 
 I&rsquo;d recommend starting with a few devkits with the serial, light switch server and light switch client examples programmed and run through the Interactive provisioning and configuration tutorial. 
 
 Edit: If you're trying out BlueZ, you'll have to provide static authentication data during the provisioning process. For the Light switch examples it can be found under examples/light_switch/include/light_switch_example_common.h and is 6E6F726469635F6578616D706C655F31. Unfortunately we cannot guarantee any support for BlueZ. but we have been able to do provisioning and configuration using BlueZ 5.49 and the nRF5 SDK for Mesh 2.0. 
 
 Hope this helps, Thomas

Mesh API for PB-GATT provisioning, proxy, Sample code

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