Do any of the nRF51 or nRF52 devices support the Thread ( or OpenThread ) protocol

[Steven Grunza]

I'm looking into a project that needs to have BLE to communicate with a user and a mesh network to communicate with multiple data gathering nodes connected by 2.4GHz RF links (some nodes will be geographically too far for a direct connection to a central server). One possibility is using BLE and ANT. Another mesh network that seems to be getting popular is Thread. Do any of the nRF51 or nRF52 devices support the Thread protocol?

[Krzysztof Loska]

Hi,

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).