How to implement vendor mesh model for nRF52840DK?

[shivashankar]

I am using nRF52840DK for working on my application. I use nRF Connect SDK v1.9.1 to run example and build application. I use VS code to build the application. I am working on BLE mesh applications, and I tried running the BLE light and BLE lightswitch examples. 

My objective is to transmit air quality sensor data through BLE Mesh using nRF52840DKs. I have 3 nRF52840DKs with me and I wanted to use it and to create a proof of concept at laboratory scale.
Here is my idea: 1 nRF52840DK will be air quality sensor end node (servernode), 1 nRF52840DK will be receiving end node (client node) which will be placed 5 meters away, remaining 1 nRF52840 DK will be proxy node and will be placed between sensor node and client node. 

My Questions,
1) I read various questions and comments and I came to conclusion that using vendor based model will be a suitable solution to implement transmission of air quality sensor data over BLE Mesh, Is this correct? can I proceed?

2) How to start with basic vendor model example which is compatible for VS code environment using nRF Connect SDK v1.9.1?

3) In case of proxy node what model will I use, please share an example.  

Please give suggestions to solve the above problem.

Shiva   

[tesc]

Hi,

I highly recommend using the latest version of nRF Connect SDK, which at the time of writing is v2.0.0.

1) I recommend that you have a look at the sensor model, which is defined by Bluetooth SIG and can share various sensor data. There is high probability this will fit for your air quality sensor data.

2) The mesh chat sample in nRF Connect SDK showcases a custom model. Note that this custom model is a bit different from the Bluetooth SIG models, since it does not have a clear server/client architecture.

3) Bluetooth mesh has a concept of "Relay feature." A node with this feature enabled is called a "Relay node", and it will relay messages through the network.

There is also a concept of "GATT Proxy feature." A node with this feature enabled is called a "GATT Proxy node", and it allows connection over a BLE connection from a mesh node that does not support the normal advertising (ADV) bearer for packet transfer. This is typically done for smartphones, which do have BLE support but do not have native Bluetooth mesh support.

Both of these features can be enabled through build time configurations.

Regards,
Terje