Mesh OTA DFU

[mregan11]

I am using nrf52832 with sd 6.0 and sdk 15.0. My application is based on the buttonless DFU example, and I am using a bootloader with OTA DFU. To update the application I need to individually connect with each one of my products. Is there a way to update my current bootloader or application to allow for a BLE Mesh OTA DFU?

[mregan11]

I'm wondering if the mesh bootloader and traditional bootloader can be combined, thus offering two ways of updating firmware. The advantages of mesh DFU are obvious, but I think there are also situations where performing a DFU on a handful of devices in a very short amount of time is also beneficial.

[Joakim Jakobsen]

I'm afraid the bootloaders can't be combined, because they are quite different. 

You can combine Mesh DFU and BLE DFU inside your Mesh network, so that some nodes can be upgraded using BLE DFU and the rest using Mesh DFU. But note that if you choose to have BLE DFU for some nodes, those nodes will not have Mesh DFU. 

So that would be up to you to decide if that is something that can work for you.  

Best regards, 
Joakim

[EAn]

Greetings Joakim Jakobsen and remaining audience of experts,

Has anyone found a workaround this limitation yet? By "this limitation" I mean: not being able to use Mesh DFU and BLE DFU concurrently in the same device.

Is there anyway to use BLE DFU in one of the mesh nodes, and have that node relay the firmware package to the remaining network via Mesh DFU? In my understanding the MeshDFU bootloader is the sole responsible for propagating the chunks of firmware, so my guess is that there would have to be a way of integrating that in the application side in order to keep the BLE-DFU bootloader...

Can anyone validate this?

Thank you very much!

Best regards,

//EA

[Joakim Jakobsen]

Hi.

Talked to our Mesh team about this: 
In theory this is possible. However, it will require a lot of work, and we haven't tested this so we can't promise anything.
You will most likely run into some problems with the format on BLE-DFU, as it doesn't have the same parameters in the metadata (missing app and company ID). A suggestion from the Mesh team was that it could be better to try and add a GATT service in the Mesh-bootloader with a custom format, even though this will lead to quite some extra work on the phone side. 

I'm afraid I don't have any more specific information about this. 

Best regards, 
Joakim Jakobsen