I am trying to get the nRF52840 to interoperate with an existing product using the Telegesis ETRX357 Zigbee radio running a Zigbee 2007 PRO stack. For now, I’m using the nRF52840-DK and the ETRX3USB dev kits; the nRF5 is running either light_coordinator or light_bulb, depending on the test, while the ETRX3 uses the provided AT command set and can also be switched between coordinator and router roles. Out of the box, neither end works; whichever plays router will associate at the 802.15.4 MAC layer but refuses to join the Zigbee network. If the nRF5 runs light_coordinator, I see ZB_NWK_SIGNAL_DEVICE_ASSOCIATED but not ZB_ZDO_SIGNAL_DEVICE_ANNCE. The ETRX3USB output isn’t so detailed but a packet sniffer reveals similar behavior if it plays coordinator and the nRF5 runs light_bulb.
From reading the ETRX3 manual and examining the traffic in a packet sniffer, it appears that the ETRX3 expects to receive the network key in the clear (that is, the APSME-TRANSPORT-KEY after association is sent without APS encryption). If I program the ETRX3 with the default ZigBeeAlliance09 trust center key (ZB_STANDARD_TC_KEY) and tell it to expect the TRANSPORT-KEY to be secured using that key, everything works. Unfortunately, the existing product uses the default ETRX3 settings and so I must make the nRF5 conform to it, not the other way around. Is it possible to persuade ZBOSS to send the network key in the clear?
