Introduction to nRF5 SDK for Mesh

The nRF5 SDK for Mesh is Nordic Semiconductor's implementation of the Bluetooth Mesh. It allows applications to utilize the features provided by the Bluetooth Mesh when running on Nordic's nRF5 Series chips.

Make sure to check the @subpage md_RELEASE_NOTES for the current release, and the @subpage md_MIGRATION_GUIDE for migration between releases.

Refer to @subpage md_COPYING for the Copyright Notice.

Important:

The nRF5 SDK for Mesh now requires the nRF5 SDK 15.0.0 to compile. Please refer to @ref md_doc_getting_started_how_to_build for more information.

In an application using nRF5 SDK for Mesh, interrupt priorities need to be considered carefully, see @ref md_doc_getting_started_mesh_interrupt_priorities.

Compatibility @anchor readme-compatibility

The mesh stack is compatible with the following configurations:

SoC	Board(s)	SoftDevice(s)
nRF51422_xxAC (deprecated)	PCA10028	S130 v2.0.1
nRF52832_xxAA	PCA10040	S132 v5.0.0/v6.0.0
nRF52840_xxAA	PCA10056	S140 v6

The mesh stack is also compatible with the nRF52810 platform, but not supported by this version of the nRF5 SDK for Mesh. Support for the nRF51-series platform is being dropped, but building the examples¹ is still supported using the CMake build system.

Resource usage

For information about resource usage, see the @subpage md_doc_introduction_mesh_hw_resources document.

Documentation

Refer to the following guides for understanding basic concepts of Bluetooth mesh and architecture of the Nordic nRF5 SDK for Mesh:

• @subpage md_doc_getting_started_mesh_quick_start
• @subpage md_doc_introduction_basic_concepts
• @subpage md_doc_introduction_basic_architecture

SDK

The nRF5 SDK for Mesh documentation is organized as follows:

• @ref index : Information providing an overview of nRF5 SDK for Mesh
• @ref md_doc_getting_started_getting_started : Tutorials describing how to perform common tasks such as installing toolchain, building the stack and examples, how to perform DFU, etc.
• @ref LIBRARIES : Libraries implementing common tasks in an application using nRF5 SDK for Mesh
• @ref SCRIPTS : The Interactive Python Application Controller Interface documentation
• @ref md_examples_README : nRF5 SDK for Mesh example applications
• @link_APIref : The API documentation
• @link_Structref : Documentation for the data structures and data fields used by the APIs

Repository Structure

The nRF5 SDK for Mesh repository is organized as follows:

• bin contains prebuilt binaries of all examples optimized for space (directory: \ospace) and for time (directory: \otime).
• CMake contains CMake setup files and utility functions.
• doc contains the main documentation and configuration files for Doxygen generation.
• examples contains example applications using the mesh stack and supporting modules.
• external contains external dependencies used by the mesh stack and examples (mainly uECC, Segger RTT and the SoftDevice).
• mesh contains the source code and unit tests for the mesh stack.
• models contains the source code for various models.
• scripts contains useful scripts, such as a parser and communication script for the serial interface provided by the mesh stack.
• tools contains tools useful for development.

---

¹ The Ligth switch proxy example is nRF52-series only.