Mesh Proxy Data In

RE: Mesh Proxy Data In

Hung Bui — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 11:08:11 GMT

Glad that it worked for you now. Thanks for sharing the information Darien.

RE: Mesh Proxy Data In

qmorrison — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 20:34:29 GMT

Yes I've added the same keys that were assigned during provisioning. And yes, that's the understanding I've arrived at.

In my case:

BLE Device without native mesh = Node.js Proxy Client sending network PDUs via BLE

'other nodes' = Nordic's Proxy Server, the light switch example

I've got the Node.js proxy client working thanks to one of our engineers, he found a bug in the Mesh Kit provided by Bluetooth, the SEQ was not being incremented. It is working now - I am able to send a Generic OnOff Set Unacknowledged to the light switch server via BLE, and the LED changes accordingly, and I did not have to provision or configure the Node.js Proxy Client.

Thank you for your time!

RE: Mesh Proxy Data In

Hung Bui — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 09:59:50 GMT

Hi Darien,

The purpose of a Proxy Node is defined as follow in the spec:

The proxy protocol enables nodes to send and receive Network PDUs, mesh beacons, proxy configuration messages and Provisioning PDUs over a connection-oriented bearer.

It's not about how to let a node which is not part of Mesh network to interact with the mesh network. No, it's about allowing a node that doesn't support native mesh (ADV bearer) to interact with other nodes via BLE.

So, on the proxy client you would need all the encryption keys as a normal node has. I think this is mentioned in the Proxy Kit documentation. There is a screen where you need to enter all the keys needed.

I would suggest you to try our nRF Mesh app. This is an example showing how you can send mesh packet from a BLE device. nRFConnect won't be able to do mesh, a mesh stack still needed on the proxy client (BLE device)

RE: Mesh Proxy Data In

qmorrison — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 01:12:59 GMT

One other thing: I understand that Nordic has AES-CCM and AES_CMAC encryption functions in the core stack... I assume the encryption algorithms I'm using on the Node.js side need to use the same salts correct? Could that be another reason the messages are Received (i get an RX log statement from proxy.c) but don't actually turn the LED on?

RE: Mesh Proxy Data In

qmorrison — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 20:30:02 GMT

Hi Hung, sure, gladly:

1. I haven't provisioned or configured the Node.js Proxy client. It's a little unclear to me whether this needs to be done or not... According to the Bluetooth Mesh Profile Specification, a device must be provisioned to communicate with the mesh via a proxy node, but if that's the case, that defeats the purpose of the proxy node. The purpose of the proxy node is to allow BLE Devices without a mesh stack to be able to communicate with the mesh. If so, why do we need to make the proxy client part of the mesh? I mean assuming we did, we could just then communicate with the mesh via mesh.

And yes, it uses the same network key and app key.

2. It's a GenericOnOff Set Message with the value of ON. I modified the DST portion of the proxy PDU to send to 2ADD, the Mesh Proxy Data In characteristic. The PDU can be seen above, both encrypted and unencrypted. I've sent a Set Acknowledged and Set Unacknowledged.

When you say "Actually you can test this by using our app" are you referring to the nRF Connect app? I'm interested only in sending data to a GATT characteristic and seeing results in the mesh. Furthermore, I have tried this from the nRF Connect app. I have provisioned the nodes via the interactive pyaci script, then scanned for them via nRF Connect, observed that once connected to the node it has the Mesh Proxy Data In characteristic, and then tried to write to that characteristic via nRF Connect. Upon writing to Mesh Proxy Data In from nRF Connect, the device disconnects. This seems to be a known problem... I'm having issues finding the exact ticket on the DevZone but I've seen multiple others struggle with this. If you're suggesting testing this via the nRF Mesh App and not the nRF Connect app, that is not what I'm aiming to do. I'm aiming to write to Mesh Data Proxy In from a BLE only device that is not part of the mesh.

Thank you so much for your time.

RE: Mesh Proxy Data In

Hung Bui — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 12:43:17 GMT

Hi Darien,

Could you give me some more information on:

1. How do you configure/provision the Node.js Proxy Client ? Have you made sure you have the same network key and appkey as on the mesh network you created ?

2. Which message did you sent ? I know it's a GenericOnOff Proxy PDU but which exact message did you send ? To which address ?

Regarding your question, the answer is yes. Isn't it the main purpose of a proxy node ? To be able to forward message from the Mesh Data Proxy In characteristic to the mesh network. Actually you can test this by using our app, you can connect to one single proxy node and then can do configuration on other nodes and you can turn off and on the light of that node. All of those tasks use the Proxy feature on the proxy node.