To Form a Mesh Network By Using IPV6 over BLE With Contiki OS

[akash naidu]

Hi All

       I have started working on BLE mesh network to control lights.

I have following doubts, please clarify.....

1. To implement mesh network, two options are there..

     a). BLE Mesh profile

     b). IPV6 over ble with contiki OS

so, I have chosen  IPV6 over ble with contiki OS.

What are major differences between BLE Mesh and IPV6 over BLE(other then connecting to internet)?

2. is there have any full support for ipv6 over ble with contiki os?

3. I would like to form a mesh network which contain minimum 20 Nodes. so, is it possible to form mesh network by using IPV6 over ble with contiki OS?

I have already procured 5 BLE beacons(nrf52840) boards. First i need to form a network with 5 beacons and one nrf52832 DK. nrf52832 DK will act as LBR and remaing 5 beacons will act as LN.

4. To implement my requirement, which SDK is suitable for me? 

Because i am using NRF52840 beacons as LN and NRF52832 DK as LBR.

so, please guide me in best way to achieve  my requirement.

Thanks in advance.

Best Regards,

Akash.

 

[awneil]

Doesn't Contiki use IEEE 802.15.4 for Mesh ?

akash naidu said:

is there have any full support for ipv6 over ble with contiki os?

That would be something you'd need to ask the Contiki people.

http://www.contiki-os.org/

Nordic's Mesh SDK is here: infocenter.nordicsemi.com/index.jsp

EDIT

BLE Mesh basics: https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/39892/ble-mesh-1-0-cellphone/154813#154813

[akash naidu]

Hi awneil

I was on leave for last week, so that i couldn't give reply to you.

Thanks for links to understand mesh ble network.

So, Finally i have changed my mindset and will go for Mesh profile instead of going to ipv6 over BLE.

I have studied about mesh ble network and have seen some examples which nrfSDK  has provided.

As i said that my requirement is to form a mesh network which contains minimum 20 boards.

For that i have downloaded nrf5 SDK for mesh and use it for my requirement.

But i have following doubts to use this SDK, please clarify it....

1.For hardware, i have already ordered nrf52840 dongles(PCA10059) boards. So is nrf5 sdk for mesh compatible for PCA10059 boards as servers?

2. As per Bluetooth mesh profile specifications,  we can form a network up to 32767 devices.So, what are the maximum boards can support to form a mesh network in nrf5 SDK for mesh(other than memory constraints) ? (Default : 30 boards)   

As earlier said that i have ordered 5 PCA10059 boards, So, what are the changes are to be required since boards can be configured as servers?  

In my case, i am planning to use PCA10040 board as client.

Please clarify the above doubts...

Thanks in advance.

Best Regards,

Akash. 

[awneil]

akash naidu said:

is nrf5 sdk for mesh compatible for PCA10059 boards as servers?

depends what you mean by, "compatible"?

It has an nRF52840 chip - which is the key requirement ...

Regarding using a Dongle as a development platform:

see https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/40150/nrf52840-dongle/155876#155876

and https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/39893/downloaded-the-sdk-for-the-nrf52840-and-found-out-that-all-refer-to-other-hardware-pca10040-and-pca10056/155417#155417

and many more ...

[akash naidu]

Hi awnei

Compatibility
The mesh stack is compatible with the following configurations:

SoC                                                            Board(s)                                               SoftDevice(s)

nRF51422_xxAC (deprecated)                 PCA10028                                             S130 v2.0.1
nRF52810_xxAA1                                     PCA10040e                                           S112 v6.0.0
nRF52832_xxAA                                       PCA10040                                             S132 v5.0.0/v6.0.0
nRF52840_xxAA                                       PCA10056                                             S140 v6.0.0

There is no compatible for PCA10059 board.

Best Regards,

Akash. 

[awneil]

again, it depends what you mean by, "compatible".

If you mean, "ready-to-use straight out of the box with no thought or adaptation" - then it's probably right to say that it's "not compatible".

On the other hand, if you mean, "could a competent person adapt it to work on the Dongle" - then it would be "compatible" by that interpretation.

Did you follow the links about using the dongle for development work?

That's probably why Nordic don't recommend the Dongle here!

[akash naidu]

Hi awnei

Thanks for your reply.

can u please guide me to port light switch example from PCA10056 to PCA10059?

Because i have already got 5 PCA10059 boards.

So,  how to change MBR and board related files to work in PCA10059 board.

Advance in thanks.

Best Regards,

Akash. 

[Edvin]

The PCA10059 and PCA10056 uses the same chip (nRF52840), so it should use the same softdevice and the same application should be able to run on it. The problem is that the donlge only has one button, while the light switch example uses 4. So you need to change the application to use only one button, and behave the way you want it to behave with only this one button. 

The hard part about this is that if you only have dongles, it is difficult to create applications and see what is going on, because it doesn't have an onboard debugger.

I understand that you already have 5 dongles at this point in time, but I really recommend you to use one PCA10056 if possible, and you can do the porting on this DK (then you are able to debug to find errors during the development). Once you have an application working with just one button, you can change that button pin to match your button pin on the dongle, and it should work.

BR,

Edvin