[DECT NR+] How can I get FT to do Beacon scanning and PT to do Beacon Broadcasting in NCS 3.3.0

[Tu Hoang0]

Hi Nordic, 

I am uing DECT NR + on NRF9151 and  trying to do some kind of network discovery like knowing how many devices available in the area. As far as I can do with the current code from hello dect, I can use PT to process FT beacon scanning. So that make me thinking is there any way I can have FT to do beacon scanning(so far the same code I did for PT does not work with FT) and PT can not (start a cluster and broadcast beacon). Do you have any way to make it work

Best regards, 
Tu 

[Øyvind]

Hello Tu, 

The current DECT NR+ MAC firmware supports only a star topology. A combined FT/PT device is not supported; devices must operate either as a Fixed Part (FT) or Portable Part (PT).

Using the Hello DECT sample (<nrfconnectdocs.nordicsemi.com/.../README.html>), you can enable the DECT NR+ L2 shell and experiment with various commands that exercise the networking stack APIs and modem MAC functionality.

With the MAC firmware, device roles are predefined: the FT transmits beacons, while the PT scans for and listens to those beacons. This implementation supports a star network only and does not provide mesh networking capabilities. Communication is limited to the association between a PT and its selected FT, broadcast messaging across multiple devices is not supported.

If multiple FTs are present, a PT network scan will detect all received beacons and report the available FTs. The PT then selects one FT to associate with.

For applications requiring more advanced discovery mechanisms or custom network behavior, the current option is to use the PHY API and implement the required MAC-layer functionality yourself. Please note that the MAC API and PHY API are mutually exclusive and cannot be used simultaneously.

Kind regards,
Øyvind