SDK supports mesh on Nordic Bluetooth MCUs
The nRF51 series ICs are SoCs that include a transceiver for wireless Bluetooth communications and a Cortex-M0 microcontroller cores and peripherals. The nRF52 devices are similar but with a Cortex-M4 microcontroller. The launch of the SDK coincides with the Bluetooth Special Interest Group’s (SIG) formal adoption of Bluetooth mesh 1.0. Bluetooth mesh extends Bluetooth low energy wireless connectivity to multinode applications in consumer, smart home, and industrial applications.
The SDK for mesh can be downloaded from Nordic’s website and includes the company’s first release of its Bluetooth mesh software protocol stack. The SDK is compatible Nordic’s Bluetooth 4.0-compatible Bluetooth low energy stacks known as SoftDevices S110, S130, and S132.
Bluetooth mesh is suitable for applications such as lighting installations covering large areas allowing control from a smartphone or tablet. Other key applications for Bluetooth mesh include back-haul for location beacons and industrial monitoring.
Nordic’s Bluetooth mesh stack incorporates additional features not included in the Bluetooth SIG’s Bluetooth mesh 1.0 specification. Nordic’s stack includes secure side-by-side and blocking device firmware updates (DFU), a feature which allows scalable, secure DFU across the mesh without interruption of service while the new firmware is transferred. The Nordic Bluetooth mesh stack also includes a solution for provisioning over relaying nodes and a serialization interface which allows control of the mesh over a serial interface when using a two-chip Bluetooth mesh solution. For example, when employing an Internet gateway as part of the application.
“Bluetooth mesh is a significant development for Bluetooth wireless connectivity adding new networks capabilities far beyond the point-to-point and star topologies for which it was originally designed,” says Alf Helge Omre, business development manager at Nordic Semiconductor.
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