Indefinite Sleep mode or Force Standby State

[B_H]

Hi,

Is it possible to remotely execute a command that would force a BLE node into indefinite sleep or standby mode?

I am working to build out a BLE mesh network, where I will need to enable a feature that allows a user to "push a button" to force the entire mesh network into standby state or possibly sleep mode. The user then would also hit the same button to wake the mesh back up without a pre-defined time period to return to normal functionality.

BLE does have a standby state, but I am not having much luck in finding any resources that discuss putting the node into a standby state at the link layer. 

I've seen a ton of discussion on sleep/wake cycles, but I'm looking for hours or days of sleep cycles with the ability to interrupt that cycle back to "wake" at any given moment.

Thanks

[tesc]

Hi,

You typically have the power usage versus latency tradeoff.

It would be possible, at least in theory, to have a mesh network enter a low power mode where it seldom checks for packets. It would however not be a Bluetooth mesh network at that point, as there is no such mechanism in Bluetooth mesh.

Also, it would be time consuming for nodes to get back up from this low power mode, since such a mode would save power through spending less time in RX. The longer time between each RX session, the less power drawn, but the longer latency to get up and running again. The main power consumption for a mesh network comes from RX and TX, so that's the place to save.

You could keep the mesh network running, but equip all nodes with an on/off model for turning the functionality of the node on/off, and send on or off messages as group messages to all nodes on the network. It would let you turn the system on/off, but the Bluetooth mesh network would still run in the background (at normal power consumption), ready for distributing an "on" message for turning everything back on again.

Regards,
Terje