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CC3100MOD AP Mode, Multiple Client Connections

Phil LaFayette10
Intellectual 605 points
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: CC3100MOD, CC3100, TM4C1294NCPDT

Hello,

I'm midway through prototyping, and have only just discovered that the CC3100MOD can only support a single Client Station Connection.

I suppose I should start with my intended use case. The product is a battery powered Wireless Sensor Network, first deployment being 300 - 400 units.

We were going to use 8 slave sensor boards, which would each connect to a node board. The sensor slaves would gather sensor data, format it, connect to a node board via WiFi in Access Point mode, then sleep for a period of time. The node boards would in turn connect to a Gateway Master board via WiFi in Access Point mode, backup data to SD Card, and use an Ethernet connection to communicate with a remote dashboard and database.

With only 1 Station connection allowed, it seems that this would be impossible. Please advise to a solution, workaround, or even another SimpleLink product offering that would be viable. We would like to maintain the CC3100MOD as our module of choice, but will use another product if need be.

Are there any current reference designs that may help? Would Transceiver mode allow this use case?

I'm in quite a bit of a pit with this, all other development has stopped on this project, so any pointers, links, tips, etc would be very much appreciated. It had seemed at first glance that the CC3100MOD would fit the bill -perfectly-, our team only wishes it was stated more clearly the "One Station Connection in AP Mode" limitation... We would have never come this far had that been known at the time.

Is it possible to code on top of the driver code, to allow more than the one connection?

The deployment is for an industrial setting, not our own building. Our product is meant to be installed at this remote industrial location, and putting up third party Access Points would be quite unprofessional, maybe even laughable. How can a wireless sensor network of this type -not- be expected to be all-inclusive with regards to Connection Topology? I hope the suggested answer doesn't come to "Oh, just install an Access Point in place of each Node Board." For 360 sensor boards, that comes out to 45 separate third party Access Points. This is a three story, nearly mile long warehouse. This would remove all agency of our product to be a fully autonomous Sensor Network...

Please advise, we're really pulling for you on this TI...

  • 0
    Intellectual 605 points

    I would like to note that according to the post here from Adnan:

    "I would also add that we will increase the number of stations supported in AP mode in the near

    future but don't have a specific timelien to share at this time.

    Adnan "

    that it -is- possible, yet this post was over a year ago. Why hasn't anything moved forward with this? Near future on what time scale?

  • 0 in reply to Phil LaFayette10
    TI__Mastermind 26320 points
    Hi Phil,

    Couple of question to fully understand your requirement.

    A. Node Board :
    1. This is where you need the CC3100 to be in Soft AP mode and allow 8 sensor nodes to connect. What's minimum sensor nodes you can use ?
    2. Also Node Board has to be connected to Main Gateway for communication with external world. In this use-case, Node board shall act as STA. You plan to do time multiplexing between two modes as CC3100MOD does not support both Soft AP and STA modes concurrently. Share you plan...
    3. What is the host MCU with CC3100MOD ?
    4. Will it be line powered or battery powered ?

    B. Main Gateway
    1. How many STA it can support simultanesouly ?
    2. How far it will be from Node Board and Sensors Slaves ?


    C. Sensor Slaves : Are these line powered or battery powered ?

    Also, please share you email id for offline discussion.

    Regards,
    Geet
  • 0 in reply to Geet Modi
    Intellectual 605 points
    Awesome, okay here we go:

    A.)
    1. Each sensor board is attached to a tower, there are exactly 8 locations per tower which will be monitored. Minimum sensor nodes then would be 8.
    2. With the short restart time, (I forgot where I read the exact time, do you have this? A fast glance at the datasheet didn't turn it up.) the plan would be to wake from sleep in AP mode, allow sensors to connect, receive data from sensors, format that data, store on a Micro SD card. Once all eight sensors have given their data, and data is stored, Node board will restart in STA mode in order to connect to Gateway. There will be quite a bit of slack time-wise between sleeping and data transfers.
    3. Host MCU is the TM4C1294NCPDT
    4. All boards will be LiPo battery powered, save the Gateway board. All boards will be making use of energy harvesting.

    B.)
    1. The main gateway board, node boards, and slave boards are all the same circuit/pcb layout with the following exceptions: Slave and Node boards will not be populated with Ethernet circuits or line power circuit (Battery only). This means a CC3100MOD on each board. Therein lies my conundrum. The STA limit seems to be 1 currently...
    2. The Gateway will be a maximum of 300 feet from the node boards. It is planned for the nodes that are out of range to either allow a connection from a neighboring node, or to use a WiFi repeater. We're leaning on the neighbor nodes method.

    Gateway board is to be the only board allowed a connection to the warehouse router through Ethernet.

    C.)
    1. All sensor slaves are battery powered with power harvesting.

    My E-Mail is PJL@mhelectricmotors. com and you can feel free to contact me any time.

    I imagine the flow to be similar to a funnel; Each board has an SD card for local data storage. As long as sensors have their data, I want to make things grouped, and funnel down.
    So, 8 sensor boards get data. They store data on SD card. Then, find a node to give data to. Connect to node, give data.
    Node saves data to SD card. Once a node gets 8 data sets, it knows it has a tower/1 round of data. Node resets as STA (UNLESS it needs to get data from another node, then it waits). Node tries to find gateway. If no gateway, look for closest node. Connect to that node, send data. Data stored on SD card. Closest nodes to gateway will know when they have a full round of data. Those nodes reset in STA. They connect to gateway, send that round of data.
    Gateway stores data on SD card, resets in STA/makes connection to internet.

    Thank you Geet!
  • 0 in reply to Phil LaFayette10
    Intellectual 605 points
    Geet Modi, are you still available for discussing this further?

    Would P2P mode provide what I need here?

    I realize you may have been away due to the holidays.

    Awaiting your response.

    Happy New Year,
    Phil LaFayette