ANT use case - best range nRF product?

[sc6po]

Hi, I intend to use ANT protocol for an application of soccer players trackers. Each soccer player would wear One master and remote sensors communicating with ANT. But also, ANT protocol would be used to send data to a data agragator. 4 to 6 nodes would be placed around to RF cover the area.

Could Nordic IC suit this use? Range is said to be 10m-30m ==> with good antenna design, in open area, could 30m be a reasonable minimum? Which device would you recommand? I see nRF52832 can output +4dBm, but has -96dBm sensibility, while nRF24AP2 has 0dBM output but -85dBm sensiblity. Is sensibility different between BLE and ANT? thanks. BR

[Kenneth]

Hi,the nRF24AP2 is an ANT connectivity IC that require an external MCU for configuration and use. The nRF51422 and nRF52832 is a complete System-on-chip solution with an embedded ARM Cortex-M processor, both capabable of supporting ANT, 2.4GHz proprietary and BLE radio protocols. For new development I would recommend you to check out the nRF5x-series IC, as both tools and performance is improved over the legacy nRF24AP2.

It is very difficult to estimate outdoor range, because if there are obstructions such as human body, then the signal is blocked. If there are walls close by then some reflections might save the day, but in general the range will be very much reduced. Placing nodes around the area to improve coverage will help, but then those should be in line of sight of each other, and possible use directional antenna.

[sc6po]

Hi, thanks for this answer. I would have expected outdoor range to be longer that indoor. I guess it really depends on configuration / sight. From what I understand, even if devices are close one of the other, regular change in position/orientation migth cause some issues since reflexions might not "save the day". And network config can not be always changed... I guess this is more tricky that what I expected...

[Kenneth]

With line of sight you can get good range outdoor yes, but the problem is once you have objects between the transmitter and receiver as you indicate, which I expect can frequently occur if you have soccer players running around. I assume it might be possible to buffer the data, with the latency that might introduce to the real time data.

[sc6po]

Yes, I think that mihght be my real issue. I got to found out how ANT really works when it comes to dynamic network or mesh network. Latency shall not be a major issue for the application, but it may add to much complexity. Thanks for your answers