Introduction#

The iOS and Android (API version 27 or older) Bluetooth LE stacks do not have native support for Bluetooth mesh and therefore devices with these operating systems cannot directly interact with Bluetooth mesh nodes using the Bluetooth mesh advertisement bearer. However, the Bluetooth mesh specification 1.0 also defines a GATT bearer, which enables any Bluetooth LE-capable device to interact with Bluetooth mesh nodes over GATT. iOS and Android (since API version 18) have included support for the Bluetooth GATT layer, and therefore it is possible to implement an iOS or Android application to provision, configure, and interact with Bluetooth mesh networks and nodes.

Silicon Labs provides a Bluetooth mesh stack for Gecko SoCs and Modules. The Silicon Labs Bluetooth Mesh ADK embeds the same stack and enable development of Bluetooth mesh applications for the iOS and Android systems.

The basic concept is that the native Bluetooth APIs of iOS and Android are used to discover and connect Bluetooth LE devices, while the ADK is used to manage the Bluetooth mesh-specific operations such as Bluetooth mesh security, device and node management, network, transport, and application layer operations.