6LoWPAN based solution

RE: 6LoWPAN based solution

Krzysztof Loska — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 11:30:16 GMT

Hi,

Thread is a self-healing mesh network with no single point of failure, designed to securely and reliably connect hundreds of products around the home. It provides extensive support for sleepy nodes which allows for years of operation, even on a single AA battery. Thread is based on the power efficient IEEE 802.15.4 MAC/PHY and natively carries IPv6 utilizing 6LoWPAN as the foundation. However it natively supports CoAP protocol, not MQTT.

Recently Nordic launched its first Thread networking solution.

Nordic provides full support for its platform within OpenThread and actively participates in the development of OpenThread by co-authoring the core of this stack.

To facilitate Thread products development with the nRF52840 platform, Nordic Semiconductor provides nRF5 SDK for Thread and nRF Thread Topology Monitor PC tool.

The nRF5 SDK for Thread v0.8.0 includes:

a pre-built OpenThread stack for the Nordic nRF52840 SoC with ARM® CryptoCell-310 support,
unique support for DFU-over-Thread (Device Firmware Upgrade),
examples to demonstrate interactions between nodes performing different Thread roles with the use of OpenThread and built-in CoAP protocol,
support for an OpenThread Network Co-Processor (NCP),
Border Router and cloud connectivity example,
Thread native commissioning with NFC example,
range of PC tools including a Thread Topology Monitor,
software modules inherited from the nRF5 SDK e.g. peripheral drivers, NFC libraries etc.

Important notice - hardware-accelerated cryptography

Due to legal restrictions support for hardware-accelerated cryptography utilizing ARM CryptoCell-310 is only available in mbedTLS library (libmbedcrypto.a) provided with the nRF5 SDK for Thread. The library available in OpenThread repository does not support hardware acceleration. You can still use it, but the commissioning procedure takes much more time in such case. For the best performance and user experience, use the library provided with the SDK.

Important notice - Certification

OpenThread is an open-source implementation of Thread standard. You can use it without any restrictions in the development phase. However, your device must meet Thread Group standards and must be a certified product before being marketed as a Thread product. Detailed information about product certification are available for Thread Group members at Contributor and Sponsor tiers (threadgroup.org/joinus).

RE: 6LoWPAN based solution

Petter Myhre — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 15:19:56 GMT

See this question for current mesh solutions. In addition we are waiting on the Bluetooth SIG to release the BLE mesh. You will need to do the AWS integration at the gateway, but an MQTT implementation is used in the IoT SDK, maybe that is useful.

RE: 6LoWPAN based solution

Amit — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 13:43:34 GMT

can you suggest any other reliable mesh with gateway and all features as mentioned before?

RE: 6LoWPAN based solution

Petter Myhre — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 09:50:02 GMT

Our latest chipset, the nRF52840 supports 802.15.4, but this is so new that we actually don't have software supporting the hardware yet.

If you want more information about 802.15.4 features, you should contact the Regional Sales Manager for your area, if you don't know who it is, send me a PM with your location and I'll let you know.

RE: 6LoWPAN based solution

Amit — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 05:57:22 GMT

In Mesh network nodes will response to UART if the node is targeted. Mesh should support IEEE 802.15.4 for MAC and PHY. Router capable of handle the mesh and any payload i want to send to some target or node device then it just relay this to target. Gateway will be connected to router via UART/USB.In gateway i will write the application to send the data to which node. Gateway should have driver to connect to AWS or other cloud via MQTT.

This is my understanding..If you give suggestions over this then it will be helpful for me..

RE: 6LoWPAN based solution

Petter Myhre — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 12:37:59 GMT

Ok. How are the gateway and the router connected? What protocol are they using?

RE: 6LoWPAN based solution

Amit — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 12:24:29 GMT

yes..i want a gateway that support MQTT and relay information from mesh.

RE: 6LoWPAN based solution

Petter Myhre — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 10:09:22 GMT

Could you elaborate a bit? How are the gateway and the router connected? What protocol are they using? Do you want the gateway to support MQTT and relay information from the mesh network? Or should each node support MQTT?

RE: 6LoWPAN based solution

Daniel Wang — Mon, 19 Dec 2016 17:31:25 GMT

There is an MQTT example in the IoT SDK