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Wireless Design Made SimpleIEEE
®
802.15.4
Our Wireless Portfolio
Our portfolio of 802.15.4 platforms lets the
developer choose the best platform for their
technical requirements and cost objectives.
Whether they simply need to add a wireless
transceiver to their existing design or create
stand-alone wireless functionality, Freescale
has the solution to meet their needs.
Freescale draws on extensive radio frequency
(RF) and wireless experience from more
than 50 years of radio product development.
With our depth of experience in this area,
we are qualified to offer comprehensive
IEEE 802.15.4 standard-compliant and
ZigBee
®
-compliant platform solutions.
Freescale makes wireless simple by providing
a one-stop shop for customers, complete
with RF transceivers, MCUs, sensors, network
protocol stacks, including 802.15.4 and
ZigBee, reference designs and a flexible
development tool suite. Virtually any low
data rate, monitoring, control or automation
application that requires long battery life
and networking capability can benefit from
the wireless connectivity solutions provided
by the IEEE 802.15.4 standard and ZigBee
technology.
Software Development
While developers and users seek nirvana
through a singular technology that solves all
of their market needs, this rarely happens.
Wireless sensing and control is no exception,
however 802.15.4 is a solid foundation and
Freescale has developed a number of protocol
stacks based on it to meet specific application
needs. Our 802.15.4 platform supports our
simple media access controller (SMAC),
IEEE 802.15.4 MAC, SynkroRF, BeeStack
Consumer (ZigBee RF4CE) and BeeStack
(ZigBee/ZigBee Pro) protocol stacks. These
give developers the flexibility to build products
optimized for different features, such as cost,
performance, complexity and interoperability.
Freescale solutions are delivered in
conjunction with our BeeKit Wireless
Connectivity Toolkit. The BeeKit provides a
simple GUI approach to configure network
settings, allowing the embedded designer
to concentrate on building the application.
BeeKit helps reduce development time for
developers lacking extensive networking
experience.
BeeKit and BeeStack Solutions
IEEE 802.15.4 provides a solid foundation for
wireless control and monitoring applications,
enabling developers to take their applications
to new levels of functionality. However, with
this increased functionality comes increased
complexity for the developer. Freescale steps
in with an extensive portfolio of development
kits based on our 802.15.4 platforms.
Whether the customer is developing simple
point-to-point applications or a complex mesh
network using ZigBee technology, Freescale
development kits provide the flexibility for
whatever wireless application is needed. The
development kits combine the hardware,
software, tools and accessories needed to
help streamline the development process.
BeeKit
Freescale 802.15.4 protocol stacks allow
application developers to enhance their
product offerings and take their applications
to new levels of functionality. However, with
this increased functionality comes increased
complexity as developers now have to
concern themselves with issues such as
network and protocol management options.
Freescale stepped in to specifically develop
the BeeKit Wireless Connectivity Toolkit to
help minimize these issues. BeeKit provides
a development environment where these
design considerations can be managed in a
straightforward, uncomplicated approach.
BeeKit offers a graphical user interface that
includes codebases for our IEEE 802.15.4
MAC, SynkroRF, BeeStack Consumer (ZigBee
RF4CE) and BeeStack (ZigBee/ZigBee
Pro) protocol stacks. BeeKit comes in all
Freescale development kits and may also be
downloaded at freescale.com. All protocol
stacks are complimentary.
SMAC
SMAC is a simple and cost-effective start to
wireless networking. Based on the 802.15.4
PHY, it provides commands to create simple
point-to-point and star networks. The small
2.5–4 KB code size allows a low-cost platform
for many applications requiring simple but
effective wireless communication.
SMAC Features
• Smallmemoryfootprint
• Supportspoint-to-pointandstarnetworks
with repeaters
• Supportforovertheairprogramming
IEEE 802.15.4 MAC
Our fully compliant IEEE 802.15.4 MAC
provides a robust building block for point-
to-point, star and mesh networks. While the
MAC is part of the SynkroRF and BeeStack
protocol stacks, it is often used as the
foundation for proprietary stacks as well.
IEEE 802.15.4 MAC Features
• FullycompliantIEEE802.15.4MAC
• Supportsoptionalfeatures,including
beaconed networks and guaranteed
time (GTS)
• Supportspeer-to-peer,starand
mesh networks
SynkroRF
Synkro RF is optimized for very quick design
cycles and an easy to follow design process.
When SMAC is too simple and ZigBee is too
complex, designers have the opportunity to
utilize Synkro RF for proprietary 802.15.4
wireless monitoring and control. The network
stack allows for application development with
the API which uses the embedded processor
running SynkroRF or the BlackBox which
provides access to the complete API through
a serial command set. Enhanced functionality
includes features such as channel agility,
larger data transfer with fragmentation, and
low latency transmission. SynkroRF is the
alternative when interoperability is not required.
Software Application Block Diagram
Application
Application
Application
Network Stack
Network Stack
Silicon
IEEE
Network/Security
Layers
MAC Layer
PHY Layer
Application Framework
