BLE Scan Packet Receive Latency When Done Along Side Mesh.

[Sivaguru Ravi]

Hi,

Scenario:  Scanning  non mesh BLE packet with different stacks.

H/W Device -  nRF52DK

Observation:

Case 1. Non Mesh BLE Stack (Soft device):: Here able to receive scan packets in less than 1 sec interval.

Case 2. Mesh stack device                          : Here the scan packets are received around 10 to 15 secs of interval..

Is this expected behavior in mesh stack? Is there any way to decreases the latency between the reception of scan packets when done along with mesh?

Note: There is no difference in the advertisement frequency/packet in both the cases.

[tesc]

Hi,

I would like some more information regarding your solution and setup.

What are the parameters for the advertisements being sent? Most importantly advertising interval.

For Case 1, what application are you running and using what SDK and version? For instance, is it an example from the nRF5 SDK? Which one?

For Case 2, I assume you are using an example from the nRF5 SDK for Mesh. Can you confirm? What example? Is it with or without GATT proxy feature? How do you scan for the advertisements? (Through setting up a scanner using the nRF5 SDK libraries or by hooking onto the mesh stack for getting the advertisements?)

Regards,
Terje

[Sivaguru Ravi]

Case 1: SDK 15 ble_app_scan_c 

Case 2: I have tried both integrating the scan in both proxy as well as non proxy server example of light switch. Both seems to give the same result.(nrf_mesh_sdk_2.1.1)

I am scanning for the advertisements using the nRF5 SDK libraries (nrf_sdh libraries to be exact).

As for the advertisement interval  it is set as small as possible. I am not able to tell the exact interval as the advertising device is an android phone and android ble sdk allows us to just set values like 1, 2, 3 levels.

[Anne van Rossum]

Which QDID? https://launchstudio.bluetooth.com/ListingDetails/59560 QDID 111537 is limited to nRF5 MESH SDK 2.0.1. Anyway, it's not relevant for us.

https://www.bluetooth.com/bluetooth-technology/topology-options/le-mesh/mesh-faq/

Can I qualify my existing Bluetooth products with low-energy functionality for Bluetooth mesh?

No, existing products cannot be qualified for Bluetooth mesh. However, those products may already have the inherent ability to be added onto a mesh network.

Hence, we will not qualify them, but we will add the ability to function in a mesh. This means we can indeed make changes and provide a better customer experience in general. .

[tesc]

Hi,

Right. So it seems in that case you are good. For the record, nRF5 SDK for Mesh v3.1.0 is still covered by QDID 111537 which was filed for v2.0.1. I must admit I am a bit confused as to what constitutes a change requiring requalification, but my general recommendation is still to not touch the mesh stack if you can avoid it.

I received an experimental patch (with support for active scanning) from one of our Mesh developers, but I see that you already got that a couple days ago in a separate (private) thread. I will leave you to that thread for now. When the issues discovered for that patch is solved then maybe we might share it here or in another public thread (as an unofficial patch, that is.) Unfortunately we do not have any immediate plans to merge that behavior into the nRF5 SDK for Mesh.

Regards,
Terje

[Sivaguru Ravi]

Yes that is right.

Sorry for the late replsy 

Regards

Sivaguru Ravi

[Anne van Rossum]

And... has it been made official? :-)

[tesc]

Hi,

Sorry, I am a bit confused as to what you refer to by "it". What are you asking if has been made official?

Regards,
Terje

[Anne van Rossum]

Hi Terje,

* Did you find time to share it publicly as an unofficial patch.

* Although you didn't have immediate plans to merge it into the nRF5 SDK for mesh, things might change. You might decide to have official active scan support after all. Hence, my question. Has this (active scanning) already been made official? :-)

Kind regards,

Anne

[tesc]

Hi,

Thanks for the clarification.

Not publicly shared yet, no. May find its way into a release eventually, but still lacks testing and from what I understand some code cleanup. Other tasks has been prioritized over this one, I am afraid.

So, nothing official yet.

Regards,
Terje