Thread protocol for outdoor sports accessories

[Mxoh]

Hi there,

We are a cycling accessories company (mainly light accessories) and have been using Nordic chips for BLE 1 to 1 connection of our helmet to phone (for configurations) and ESB/2.4GHz of our helmet to remote (for turn signals). As our company's direction is to produce more accessories and for them to be in a network, we have been researching and experimenting on this.

Frankly we are no experts and initially tried BLE mesh from our experience with BLE but found that the power consumption might be too high due to need for constant advertising and scanning. We came across Nordic BLE multi-link and planning to start some experiments with it soon but I am apprehensive as it is requires to define central and peripheral. My questions are:

1. Due to time constraint, we are likely still using BLE to create the network but I am wondering if there is possibly that in the future we would be able to support a supposedly better network protocol like Thread?

2. As our products are mainly outdoor accessories, we do not have a home network to tap into and rely on battery. I know that Zigbee requires a hub to be connected to a router but is there still a chance we can use Thread?

FYI we are currently using Nordic IC nRF52832 but have purchased Nordic nRF52840 with a development board router to experiment with Thread.

[Simonr]

Hi

In this case I think the app would be better suited to act as the central. But this would make it necessary for the app to stay connected to these devices. I'm afraid there isn't any router role in BLE like in Mesh/Thread networks. I guess you can use an app to set up the network, and then make one of the other devices central once it leaves, but the devices would have to pair again with this new central. 

Best regards,

Simon

[Mxoh]

Thanks Simon, I see! Let me discuss with my engineer about this. After connecting to a new central, what happens when we connect the devices to the app again? I guess it could be acceptable for users to pair with the new central but this should preferably only happen once. We provide the app to also check battery life more easily and provide firmware updates so a user would periodically open the app and my concern is that it means we always have to repair to the app and new central. 

We thought of another idea where the devices connect to the app through BLE and the app is the central. The devices then talk to each other via 2.4 GHz/ESB. So when a user connects all his devices through the app, we automatically assign them to a private 2.4GHz/ESB channel. Do you think that this is possible?

Just curious for Thread have you seen any outdoor use-case and does Thread require a Wi-Fi network to work? Technically speaking if we define a clear router and the rest of devices as end nodes it is similar to BLE multi-link right?

Once again, I apologise for the many questions as we are in the midst of experiments and my challenge to our engineers is to find the best possible way to set up a network of device to have our required light configurations. 

[Simonr]

Hi again

Mxoh said:

my concern is that it means we always have to repair to the app and new central. 

Maybe not necessarily. It occurred to me that you're not restricted to the one central, and each peripheral could maintain the central connection to (for example) the helmet, while the phone app (also a central) connects to them and checks I.E. battery life. Then the last device could also switch between being a central and peripheral to connect to the phone as well.

Regarding the 2.4GHz/ESB channel, I'm not that familiar with these applications, so I'm not sure unfortunately.

I can't remember seeing any Thread network outdoor use-cases specifically in the past, no, but there might be some that I've missed. No, Thread does not require a Wi-Fi network, but it's possible to connect with a border router to Wi-Fi. Have you seen our introduction blog post to Thread here with a quick overview? Yes, with one router and multiple end points, it would indeed be similar to a BLE star network.

Best regards,

Simon