Zigbee protocol operation when defining SOFTDEVICE_PRESENT macro

[anusha_14]

Hello Nordic support,

I am planning to develop an application that will either use Zigbee protocol or BLE protocol. The protocol to be used is determined at startup by reading a certain value in flash memory address . From what I understand, if SoftDevice is used, we need to define the macro SOFTDEVICE_PRESENT which is required for compiling some of the nRF5 SDK files. 

I would like to understand if the application is compiled with this macro SOFTDEVICE_PRESENT, will it create any issues when I am using Zigbee protocol in my application instead of BLE?

Regards,

Anusha

[Sigurd]

Hi,

That should not be an issue. Take look at the Zigbee multiprotocol examples on how it's done there:

https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/topic/sdk_tz_v4.2.0/zigbee_multi_examples.html

[anusha_14]

Hi Sigurd,

Thanks for your response.

I understand that in case of dynamic multiprotocol, radio is time-sliced between the two protocols. So, if I follow the example of Zigbee multiprotocol, the radio will be time-sliced between BLE and Zigbee.

1. However, in my use case, only one protocol will be used, which is determined at application startup. In this case, even though the application is using only one protocol, is the radio still going to be time-sliced? 

2. Instead of using SoftDevice s140 which has multiprotocol support, is it possible for me to use another SoftDevice, say s132 since my application will not use BLE and Zigbee together? By doing so, the radio will be always available for one protocol. Is my understanding correct?

Regards,
Anusha

[Sigurd]

anusha_14 said:

1. However, in my use case, only one protocol will be used, which is determined at application startup. In this case, even though the application is using only one protocol, is the radio still going to be time-sliced? 

No, if there is e.g. no active BLE roles(scanning/advertising,connection), then Zigbee will get all the radio time.

anusha_14 said:

2. Instead of using SoftDevice s140 which has multiprotocol support, is it possible for me to use another SoftDevice, say s132 since my application will not use BLE and Zigbee together? By doing so, the radio will be always available for one protocol. Is my understanding correct?

No. Multiprotocol is achieved by using "timeslots", S132 also have support for that. But note that S132 is not compatible with nRF52840.

[anusha_14]

Ok, thanks for this information. This helps.