Bluetooth Mesh overview

The Bluetooth® Mesh protocol is a specification (see Bluetooth Mesh protocol specification) developed and published by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). It allows one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many communication, using the Bluetooth LE protocol to exchange messages between the nodes on the network.

Some of the features the Bluetooth Mesh in the nRF Connect SDK can offer are:

  • Multi-hop (message relaying), extending the range beyond RF - supports up to 32767 devices in a network, with a maximum network diameter of 126 hops

  • Multipath transmission, increasing the reliability

  • Built-in security:

    • Multilevel encryption (network and application)

    • Privacy through obfuscating

    • Authentication

    • Replay protection

    • Trash-can attack protection through Key Refresh and node removal procedures

  • Complete Bluetooth Mesh models implementation

  • Complete Bluetooth Mesh Profile from Zephyr Project

  • Rich samples for prototyping

  • Roles configurable in Kconfig, among others

    • Relay

    • Friend

    • Low Power

    • Proxy

    • Provisioning (Provisioner/Provisionee)

  • EnOcean Switch integration

  • Standardized profiles for wireless lighting controls (NLC)

  • Configuration and provisioning using nRF Mesh mobile app

The Bluetooth Mesh in the nRF Connect SDK supports all mandatory features of the Bluetooth Mesh protocol specification and the Bluetooth Mesh model specification, as well as most of the optional features. See Bluetooth Mesh models for details about the models implemented in the nRF Connect SDK. In addition, a number of features is supported by Zephyr’s Bluetooth Mesh Profile.

The following pages provide an overview of the Bluetooth Mesh in nRF Connect SDK.