Help with a mesh architecture.

[user3344]

Hi, I am trying to setup a mesh architecture, and I am not sure which path to take (Thread / Zigbee / Etc).   The architecture is for the following system.

There will be 30-60 nodes inside and outside of a building.  Each node will have both need to receive and transmit messages.  The messages will be minimal amount of bytes, but each node should be updated w/in half a second or so.  If input of 1 node is triggered, the output of all the other nodes should be triggered as well.  All the nodes are battery powered (coin cell), so energy usage is a concern.  

Whats the best way to set this up with the minimal amount repeater overhead while maintaining a low battery life?  

[Hung Bui]

Hi,

Mesh is not exactly made for low power designs. To maintain the coverage of mesh network  requires you to have a number of backbone nodes that can relay and cache the message. Leaf nodes can be low power but they have latency due to sleeping period. 

All mesh technologies support this, including Bluetooth Mesh, Thread, Zigbee. 

Basically you would need a few nodes that need to be main powered and should have the coverage of the whole network in their RF range. Then you have low power node that connect to these nodes. 

If your node is not too distributed you can also think of using scattered network, in which you have several Bluetooth Low Energy star networks that connect to each other. Our current softdevice support up to 20 concurrent links. 

Another option is to use hybrid solution, a  mesh network for the back bone and a BLE star network from the battery powered nodes to the mesh relay nodes.