Range Extender in SimpliciTI

 Hello.

Problem 1: The distribution was created with the incorrect option for the debugger in the RE case (assuming Release 1.0.5). The download should work correctly after choosing Options|Debugger and choosing 'Chipcon' in the 'Driver' drop-down box for the RE project. See if that helps.

Problem 2:  There is no special configuration needed to use an RE. The idea was that if two peers are out of range simply interpositioning an RE would improve things by simply relaying frames on behalf of all devices it sees. Also, again assuming the 1.0.5 Release, the 'AP as data hub' example implements Frequency Agility. There is a known bug in the REs for the frequency agility case if the channel changes. This is fixed in the next release. This bug may or may not explain what you are seeing but it is a problem. 

Range Extenders are also probalematic in some other situations especially if they appear in arranegments in which the peers are actually within range. This issue is being worked. The best way to see what is happening is to the use Sniffer utilty available on the SimpliciTI Web site. I suspect using this tool will help clarify the problem.

Hope this helps.

lfriedman

Hi, Ifriedman,

 Thank you so much for your help! I've solved Problem 1, following your instructions.

As Problem 2, I'll change the code to fix the AP and ED on the first channel, download them again and see if the RE works.

About the Network configuration, I'm a little confused of the concept of HOP in SimpliciTI. Does ‘AP--RE--ED’ count as 2 hops or 1 hop? In other words, if I want to use ONE Range Extander in a network, should the parameter 'MAX_HOPS_FROM_AP' be set as 1 or 2 ?

 Thanks again for your last reply!

Regards, 

 Shington

It is the SimpliciTI convention that the concept of hops means the maximum number of replays the frame is allowed. The hop count is decremeneted in each device that is allowed to replay frames which means APs and REs. If a replaying device sees a hop count of 0 in the frame it receives it throws the frame away.

The MAX_HOPS_FROM_AP should be left at 1. This will allow the scenario you asked about:(AP-RE-ED) to work properly. This value is used only in certain cases when a device "knows" it can't be more than 1 hop away. For example, a polling device cannot be more than 1 hop away from the AP from which which it will get its frames. Using this shoertcut simply cuts down on network traffic and broadcast storms. Normally the MAX_HOPS value is placed in the hops count field. This permits P2P communication through the path ED-RE-AP-RE-ED.

Hi, Ifriedman,

Thanks so much for your detailed explanation! Now I understand the concept of HOP in SimpliciTI. Your posts help me a lot!

Regards,

Shington

 Is the following P2P communication path supported?

ED-RE-RE-AP

Hello.

No, ED-RE-RE-xx is not supproted. A Range Extender will not replay a frame from another Range Extender. 

lfriedman

Hi Ifriedman,

We are planning to implement some applications using simpliciTI,

and am new to simpliciti protocol, sounds intersting i gone through all your

documents and planning to implement in one of our project.

my first question is mximium how many nodes does it support

in an network, i mean without using repeaters or range extenders.

And is ther anything which it overcomes Zigbee drawbacks?

How can we say that its better option when compared to zigbee.

As we have already implemented zigbee, i wanted to know

is there anything that is better comparitively.

Hello.

In general, I would say that SimpliciTI does not really compete with Zigbee. The two are complementary. Though they are both low power RF solutions, I believe they span different domains. SimpliciTI provides a basic infrastructure upon which users can build enhancements. For example, it does not support guaranteed delivery but users could certainly build this capablity on top. Many of the design decisions for SimpliciTI were based on keeping the footprint small and the complexity low but to make it relatively easy for users to design and add their own features.

• SimpliciTI is a simple, peer-to-peer proprietary protocol.
  
• Peer messaging is connection based but without guaranteed delivery.
  
• Connections are by default bidirectional.
  
• The API is small and straightforward: initialize, link (connect peers), then read and write. 
• The code footprint is also small -- well under 16K.
  
• There is no routing so all advantages and disadvantages of such schemes are not present.
  
• Polling devices devices are supported but all from a single resource.
• There is no beaconing support.
  
• The radio interface for the SimpliciTI distribution (roughly equivalent to a MAC layer) is a common interface. The same interface supports multiple radios and is not limited to the 802.15.4 radio. This makes porting attractive and easy.
  
• There is only a practical limit to the number of devices for SimpliciTI since it is strictly peer-to-peer.
• The distribution is all source code and is royalty-free (but not license-free).
• There is no formal oject model so interoperability is up to users to incorporate.
  

In general, I would say that the two solve different problems. If you find that Zigbee is overkill and you are not using many of the core features it provides you might give SimpliciTI consideration. But if you need any of the more sophisticated features of Zigbee you might find that SimpliciTI does not provide enough support. Without knowing more about your potential application it is difficult to judge which would be more useful.

Hope this helps.

lfriedman

Hello,

I have one question for RE in SimpliciTI...

Is it possible linking ED (sleep/polls) to AP (as data hub) through RE?

If it is possible, how I must configure RE?

When my network works without RE, transmision looks like that:

but when I try use RE (transmision through RE) it looks like that:

Could you explain me wy ED doesn't answer to question for AP ?

Hello.

The answer to your question is "yes". But unfortunately, REs do not work properly under many conditions in Release 1.0.6 and earlier. This is especially true for the polling case. Rather than post a patch, waiting for Release 1.1.0 is recommended if you can wait until the end of March. When the REs are working properly no specific configuration is required on the part of the user.

Hope this helps.

lfriedman

Sir

I am currently working on SimpliciTI model using CCE and I need to include range extender code in the project and what modifications do I need to do on configuration files.Please guide me with your valuable suggestions

Umamahesh Y V

Sir,

To my previous post still it was unanswered,I use CCE and I included main_Linklisten.c and main_LinkTO.c programs and then I included main_RE.c and made the following modifications I included #ifdef LINKLISTEN and at the end of the code #endif and while compiling the code,I gave another device address  for RE,my problem is it doesnt come out of while meaning it is not getting initialised ,

  while (SMPL_SUCCESS != SMPL_Init((uint8_t (*)(linkID_t))0))
  {
    toggleLED(1);
    toggleLED(2);
    SPIN_ABOUT_A_SECOND;
  }

it hangs here itself

where I am going wrong please guide me with your valuable suggestions.

Thanks & Regards

Umamahesh Y V