Adding Mesh to an existing HCI app (Linux)

[dbuijsma]

We have an existing HCI application (SDK12.3) which implements advertising, scanning and central (8 concurrent connections). The application runs on a Linux device and communicates with an nRF52 over a serial interface (UART). The linux code uses the pc-ble-driver library from Nordic.

Now we want to add Mesh functionality and my question is whats the best way to do this. Essentially, the goal is to have BLE and MESH coexist (like the "sdk_coexist" examples in the Mesh SDK). The difference being that the app will run on the linux box.

We've upgraded our SDK to 15 and things are still working. Now we need to add MESH functionality: I've seen the MESH Serial example and am about to experiment with this to see if I can incorporate that in our app. However, there only seems to be a Python example application. Is there a C -version available? And more importantly: what is the right approach? Is this as simple as adding the mesh-SDK to the linux build and calling the APIs like the examples  show?

Thanks,

Dirk

[Susheel Nuguru]

You would need to add the Mesh stack into your connectivity firmware and then run the mesh serial example on that firmware, the tricky part is to combine the connectivity UART with the mesh serial we provide and could be a complex part. 

[dbuijsma]

Thanks for the reply Aryan. Is Nordic planning pulling Mesh functionality into the pc-ble-driver? 

[Susheel Nuguru]

We already have the serial driver for Mesh (not in the pc ble driver, we do not intend to integrate that here)

you should look into nrf_mesh_serial and serial component interface we provide for Mesh.

[dbuijsma]

Understood, but if a customer who has a need for an HCI application and wants to use mesh and at the same time function as a BLE central to periodically connect to a device, what options do they have? 

[Susheel Nuguru]

We do not have HCI interface yet, but you can still control Mesh stack as connectivity stack using serial (but not HCI format command/event)

I believe this example is what you need to use Mesh stack as connectivity firmware controlled through serial. Take a look at the command packets and events available to control the stack.