NRF52840: Use BLE MESH & ZigBee

[Bingo]

Is it possible to use both Zigbee & BLE MESH at same time?

Actually we are planning to use NRF52840 for our next project. In which BLE MESH will be used for BLE mesh device and Zigbee will be used for other ZigBee device. 

[Joakim Jakobsen]

Hi

It could be very hard to run two separate mesh protocols on a single chip/radio. Both Bluetooth Mesh and Zigbee protocols require the nodes to be in receive mode most of the time to be ready to receive packets from other nodes. If you are going to run two full mesh protocols, you can at most be in receive mode in each of the protocols in 50% of the time, which will lead to heavy packet loss in one or both the protocols. 

Is there a specific reason that you want to run two mesh protocols on the same device?

Br, 
Joakim

[Bingo]

Yes, I want to design a gateway that could transfer data between ble mesh device and zigbee device.

[Joakim Jakobsen]

I see. 

Like I said, running two separate mesh protocols on a single chip/radio could lead to heavy packet loss.

Maybe you could consider alternative solutions. I.e making your gateway a BLE device, and the adjacent zigbee/BLE Mesh nodes zigbee/BLE or BLE Mesh/BLE. That way the nodes could communicate with the gateway using BLE. BLE only uses the radio for short bursts, and the radio will be available for the Mesh most of the time. 

Br, 
Joakim