Users Manual

Document:
SHARKY - User’s Guide 2020/11/18
Doc: UG_MDX-STWBx, Rev 1.7
pag. 10 of 38
To be able to connect these different publishers and subscribers, a mesh topology is created.
The standard uses BLE advertising and scanning as an underlying technology to implement
communication. To communicate in a Bluetooth Mesh network, a flooding mechanism is used.
By default, a flooding mechanism ensures that each node in the network repeats incoming
messages, so that they are relayed further, until the destination node is reached.
The standard uses a new type of BLE advertisement packet to communicate in a mesh
network, which is only supported by devices that support both BLE and Bluetooth Mesh.
Fortunately, the standard also defines a backwards compatibility feature to ensure that BLE
devices which do not support Bluetooth Mesh can also be part of a Bluetooth Mesh network.
3.3. Thread Technology overview
Thread is a secure, wireless mesh networking protocol. The Thread stack is an open
standard that is built upon a collection of existing Institute for Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE) and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards.
The Thread stack supports IPv6 addresses and provides low-cost bridging to other IP
networks and is optimized for low-power/battery-backed operation, and wireless device-
to-device communication. The Thread stack is designed specifically for Connected Home
applications where IP-based networking is desired and a variety of application layers can
be used on the stack.
Figure 4. Thread Network Architecture
These are the general characteristics of the Thread stack focused on the Connected
Home:
● Simple network installation, start-up, and operation: The Thread stack
supports several network topologies. Installation is simple using a smartphone,