Project Overview
FoogleTech designed and delivered a dual-MCU architecture bridging BLE advertisement data into a Wirepas mesh network — enabling ultra-scalable, low-power wireless IoT infrastructure for smart buildings, industrial facilities, asset tracking, healthcare monitoring, and warehouse automation. The solution pairs a Silicon Labs EFR32MG26 for BLE data handling with a Nordic Semiconductor nRF9151-DK running Wirepas firmware, connected via a high-speed UART link with CBOR-encoded payloads.
The Engineering Challenge
- Existing BLE-only deployments could not scale beyond line-of-sight range or handle the density of nodes required for large industrial facilities and multi-floor smart buildings — a bridge to a self-organizing mesh protocol was essential.
- Synchronising two independent MCUs (EFR32MG26 and nRF9151-DK) with different firmware SDKs over UART required a custom inter-MCU protocol that maintained data integrity without introducing latency or dropped frames.
- Payload encoding needed to be compact enough for constrained mesh node bandwidth — standard JSON encoding was too verbose and would have congested the mesh under high node density.
- The solution needed to serve multiple verticals simultaneously — smart building automation, asset tracking, healthcare, agriculture, and warehouse — requiring a modular, configurable architecture rather than a single-use implementation.
Our Solution
- FoogleTech designed a dual-MCU architecture where the EFR32MG26 (developed in Simplicity Studio) continuously scans for BLE advertisement packets, parses device identifiers and payloads, and forwards data to the nRF9151-DK over a dedicated UART channel at 125,000 baud — a custom baud rate selected to balance throughput and EMI on the shared PCB.
- The nRF9151-DK, programmed with the nRF Connect SDK and Wirepas firmware, receives the UART frames, validates CBOR-encoded payloads, and injects the data into the Wirepas mesh network — which self-organises routing paths without any central coordinator, providing inherent resilience against node failure.
- CBOR (Concise Binary Object Representation) encoding was adopted for all inter-MCU and mesh-forwarded payloads, reducing message size by up to 60% compared to JSON while maintaining schema flexibility across different device types and sensor configurations.
- Optional LTE cloud connectivity was integrated on the nRF9151-DK, allowing the mesh gateway to forward aggregated sensor data to cloud backends when internet access is available — with local buffering during outages ensuring no data loss in intermittent-connectivity environments.
Results & Outcomes
- Self-organizing Wirepas mesh deployed with zero single point of failure — the decentralized mesh automatically reroutes around failed nodes without operator intervention.
- CBOR encoding reduced mesh packet sizes by up to 60% compared to JSON-based alternatives, enabling higher node density without congesting the shared wireless channel.
- Dual-MCU UART bridge operating reliably at 125,000 baud with custom frame validation — zero frame loss observed during extended stress testing across simulated high-density node environments.
- Architecture validated across smart building automation, industrial IoT, asset tracking, and healthcare monitoring use cases — a single firmware base serving multiple deployment verticals.
Why BLE Wirepas Mesh Bridge Chose FoogleTech Software
FoogleTech Software is a specialist engineering company with over a decade of expertise in AI, embedded systems, IoT, and full-stack software development — serving product teams and enterprises across Smart Home & Consumer Electronics and beyond. Our engineers don't just write code — they understand the domain, the constraints, and the real-world pressures that ship deadlines create. For BLE Wirepas Mesh Bridge, that meant deploying a pre-vetted team with direct experience in EFR32MG26, nRF9151-DK, Wirepas Mesh, reducing ramp-up time from months to days and delivering production-quality work from the first sprint.
Every FoogleTech engagement starts with a structured discovery phase, follows a disciplined agile delivery model with daily engineering syncs, and ends with complete documentation handover — so your in-house team owns the outcome. No black boxes, no lock-in.