Hi,
We have observed an incompatibility case during secured authentification process between the plug & switch on Ember stack & our coordinator on Texas Instrument stack. In a secured network, after a device have made an association with a router, this router sends an APS Update Device command to the coordinator (the Trust Center in our case) in order to authentificate the new incoming device. We observed that Ember router sends this APS Update Device with NWK & APS security activated whereas Texas Instrument router sends this message with only NWK security activated. Please observed following 'incompatibility texas & ember.pcap' log file 8688.incompatibility texas & ember.zip : use following network key : 0dbf0590034cc31513ef0facc69d9389 At frame 299 : we made a succesfull association & authentification process with a Texas Instrument secured router. At frame 818, 847 & 857 : we made an association with a Ember router but the authentification failed.
The difference concerns the Zigbee Application Support Layer : the security is activated on Ember and is not on Texas Instrument. I wouldn't say if Ember or Texas Instrument is right or wrong, but as we are in Home Automation Security (Residential Security mode), is it not just the Zigbee Network Layer concerned about security?
Thanks!
Leo
Hi Leon,
the issue you're facing comes from a different interpretation of the ZigBee specification r17, which was not clear about the encryption methods on APS layer to send the UPDATE-DEVICE.
Hence, different technology vendors have implemented this procedure differently; which led to the interop problem you're reporting. This issue has been identified in the errata of the ZigBee spec and is corrected in next r20 version, which is currently being finalized within the ZigBee Alliance but not yet completed.
When r20 the profile is ratified and completed, we will publish a release which supports those feature and hence automatically solves the item above.
We of course have a solution which works-around this issue but I recommend the full r20 compliant release if your project timing allows for it.
Please let us know if this works for you and in case contact your local TI-representative if you need information on Z-stack roadmap.
Thanks,
TheDarkSide
Thanks a lot for this answer.
It is quite bad news for us.
Are all the stacks (Ember, Jennic...) are impacted by this issue or only Texas Instrument Z-Stack ?
Do you know when the next r20 version should be ratified ?
How many time do we have approximatively to wait before next Z-Stack release? (3 months, 6 months, 1 year or more ?)
We understood that you already have a "solution which works-around this issue", should it be possible to test it before?
Best Regards,
We are facing the same issue when using MSP430 + CC2520 as coordinator, the "update device" packet with NWK and APS security is sent from the router (Ember Based) and acknowledged by the Coordinator, but there is no response. We understand you are having a work around for this, kindly provide the solution for the same. We are using the latest ZStack available.
With Regards,
Muruga
I have encountered what looks like the same problem, where a ZigBee certified light switch will not connect to a TI coordinator. The switch joins an Ember network correctly, and the difference is that the APS security is enabled on the Ember when it sends the security key to the switch. How do I get the patch for this? I am using the CC2530-2.5.0 stack.
Leo Cahalan
Well, I contacted TI support to get a workaround for this and this is the reply I got.
'Due to the nature of your inquiry, we recommend you use our TI E2E™ Community Support Forums where you can post questions, search for answers and collaborate with fellow engineers and TI experts.'
I also tried the recently released CC2530-2.5.1 stack, but it behaves the same way. So the situation is that we can not sell our TI based product because it is not interoperable with ZigBee certified products. As pointed out earlier, this may be an Ember issue, but in any case we are developing with TI and this is the side we need to change to make this work.
If anyone has a patch for this, please let me know.