Mesh Profile Specification -- Models and Elements

[DeveloperZ]

Hi,

I am looking for ways to reduce the Element count on the nodes that have multiple instances of same model.

I was going through the Mesh specifications and I found this in the profile specs:

It says that an element can't contain models using the same messages. Does that mean that models can have a different set of messages created that might be similar to the set of messages already present for the same model and we can have multiple overlapping models in the same element?

For example, in the OnOff model, create a different set of messages and initialize multiple models with different set of messages and have those OnOff models on the same element?

Is it possible at all by any means to have overlapping models in a single element?

Thank you.

[Omkar Kulkarni]

Hi,

The requirement of `element can't contain multiple models using the same messages` - arises from the more high-level design that, an element on the mesh node represents one actionable entity. This entity contains states that can be set or read by sending messages to that element address. 

With respect to nRF Mesh SDK, it is not only sufficient to have different opcodes, but you will also need to use a different model ID. Essentially, you will have a different model altogether even if it tries to do the same task as the original model. 

It is not a good idea to instantiate such overlapping models on the same element. If you need multiple instances of the same SIG models, you must instantiate them on separate elements. 

Regards.