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TM4C129x for a 6LowPAN EDGE ROUTER

Bruno Saraiva
Guru 13040 points
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: CC2560, CC1310

Gentlemen,

We are developing a few "Internet of Things" data collection environments. This is part of a social and teaching project, as well as a serious development exercise. We've pictured three different solutions, all based on TI's Simplelink family:

a) BLE sensor nodes sending info to a dedicated smartphone app, then into the cloud

b) 6Lowpan sensor nodes sending data to a local edge-router => cloud.

c) Some sort of sub-ghz Simplelink CC1x solution to a local edge-router => cloud.

I've been doing the "initial reading" about these... For (b) and (c), we need this intermediate guy called edge router. And typically, TI themselves automatically suggest a BeagleBone based device.

BUT it seems that an RF boosterpack on a TM4C129x launchpad is enough hardware for a nice "not many nodes" edge-router... , ain't the case? Unfortunately, the research and forum posts are taking me into circles...

Do you enlightnened fellows know of resources on this idea (or maybe wish to condemn it from scratch!)?

  • 0
    Guru 117855 points
    Should (any) of this involve the joint, "Vendor-Exosite" attempt - I'd proceed (slowly) and with extreme caution. (such is very well documented - right here...)
  • 0
    TI__Mastermind 22580 points
    Hello Bruno,

    A TI Design with TM4C129x and CC2560 (BLE) (where the CC2560 is configured as BLE peripheral) is available here: www.ti.com/.../TIDM-TM4C129XBLE. This example does not have any smartphone app. But a second set of TM4C129x and CC2560 acts as BLE central.

    I am not an expert on the 6LowPan modules so cannot answer you exact questions. As far as I know, the 6LowPan protocol implementation uses "Contiki" OS. If you want to do any customization, you might have to learn and modify Contiki's configuration. What radio are you looking to use for 6LowPan - 2.4 GHz or sub-1GHz?

    We are also going to release a TI Design with TM4C123 and CC1310 (sub-1 GHz) in about 2 months. This TI Design won't be using the 6LowPan protocol though.

    If you are still interested in knowing more about 6LowPan, I can move this post to the relevant forum. Let us know.

    Thanks,
    Sai
  • 0 in reply to Sai Reddy
    Guru 13040 points
    Sai San,

    Thank you. I had not came across that link yet. The concept of the BLE IoT Node is exactly what I had in mind - but rather for 6LowPan instead of BLE.

    If the TM4C129x is beefy enough to work as a BLE IoT node, it can certainly do 6LowPAN as well - it is "only a simple matter of software"! It is probably not a bad idea to implement a TM4C129x internet node for 6LowPan... - until now the "lightest implementations" I found are Beaglebones... but I'd assume that lots of scenarios include very few messages per minute, from not that many sensors. Unfortunately, for now, I don't have the knowledge to put up such package, but the search continues.

    As for the radio, we were talking about sub-1Ghz (lower power, longer range...) You will see from my initial post that a CC1310 would be next (better, actually) option. So I will be very interested of looking at such design and eager to adopt it on this project.

    Cheers
  • 0 in reply to Bruno Saraiva
    TI__Mastermind 22580 points
    Hello Bruno,

    As mentioned before, I am not an expert on the 6LowPan. I agree with you in that TM4C's hardware capability might be enough to implement an edge router. But the software is where the actual effort is. Most of the implementations of 6LowPan are based on Contiki OS. So there is a learning curve. I have not worked on this OS so far, so cannot comment on how big the curve could be.

    I am glad at you interest in the sub 1-GHz TI Design.

    Thanks,
    Sai