qi-hardware/ben-wpan
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<TITLE>
Ben-WPAN Overview
</TITLE>
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<H1>Ben-WPAN Overview</H1>
Ben-WPAN is a hardware and software effort within the
<A href="http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Main_Page">Qi-Hardware</A> project.
The objective is to enable the
<A href="http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Ben_NanoNote">Ben NanoNote</A>
to communicate wirelessly using IEEE 802.15.4-based protocols.
<BR>
All elements of the project are licensed
under open licenses, such as the GPLv2+, LGPLv2.1+, and CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Furthermore, only Free tools were used for the electronic design,
such as the
GPL-licensed <A href="http://www.lis.inpg.fr/realise_au_lis/kicad/">Kicad</A>.
<BR>
This page is a brief summary. For background information and further
details, please visit the
<A href="http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Ben_WPAN">wiki page</A>.
<P>
A first run of <B>atben</B> and <B>atusb</B> boards has been produced
by <A href="http://www.tuxbrain.com/en">Tuxbrain S.L.</A> and further
revisions of <B>atusb</B> have been produced and are available for sale
from <A href="http://shop.sysmocom.de/products/atusb/">sysmocom</A>.
<P>
<TABLE>
<TR>
<TD><A href="800px-Atben_atusb_prod_03.jpg"><IMG
src="atben-pcba-small.jpg"></A>
<TD><A href="800px-Atben_atusb_prod_07.jpg"><IMG
src="atben-use-small.jpg"></A>
<TD><A href="800px-Atben_atusb_prod_05.jpg"><IMG
src="atusb-pcba-small.jpg"></A>
<TD><A href="zoom.html"><IMG
src="atusb-use-small.jpg"></A>
<TR bgcolor="#d0d0d0">
<TH colspan="2">atben (for the Ben NanoNote)
<TH colspan="2">atusb (Full-Speed USB)
</TABLE>
<H2>Hardware</H2>
Both boards are based on the Atmel
<A href="http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/product_card.asp?part_id=4338">
AT86RF231</A> transceiver. They operate in the license-free 2.4 GHz band
using the
<A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.15.4">IEEE 802.15.4</A>
physical and link layer.
<BR>
Note that IEEE 802.15.4 is different from
<A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11">IEEE 802.11</A> (WLAN)
and <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth">IEEE 802.15.1</A>
(Bluetooth).
<P>
Both boards transmit with a maximum power of 2 mW (+3 dBm) over a
distance of up to about 10 m in a typical indoors environment.
<BR>
The standard data rate of IEEE 802.15.4 is 250 kbps. The transceiver
supports non-standard rates of up to 2 Mbps, with a reduced range.
<H2>Compatibility</H2>
<B>atben</B> and <B>atusb</B> can communicate at the physical and link
layer with any device that implements the
<A href="http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/download/802.15.4-2006.pdf">IEEE
802.15.4-2006 standard</A> for the 2.4 GHz band.
<BR>
This includes <B>atben</B> with <B>atusb</B>, <B>atben</B> with <B>atben</B>,
etc. There are
<A href="http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/linux-zigbee/wiki/HardwareSupport">many
more</A> IEEE 802.15.4 devices, which should also interoperate with the
Ben-WPAN boards.
<P>
<B>atben</B> plugs into the Ben's
<A href="http://lists.en.qi-hardware.com/pipermail/discussion/2011-January/006908.html">8:10 card</A> slot.
Note that it is <U>not</U> an SDIO card.
<P>
<B>atusb</B> is designed for USB 2.0 Full-Speed and has an USB A connector.
The host needs suitable drivers for the board.
<H2>Software</H2>
The ultimate goal is to fully support IPv6 with
<A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6LoWPAN">6LoWPAN</A>, in
cooperation with the
<A href="http://wpan.cakelab.org/">linux-wpan</A>
project.
<P>
To make use of the boards while working on IPv6, we have developed a quick
and dirty tunnelling mechanism for IPv4. A video demonstrating its use
can be seen
<A href="http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/wpan/tmp/wpan-ipv4.ogg">here</A>.
<P>
<B>atben</B> has no local "intelligence" and its SPI interface is
bit-banged directly by the Ben.
<BR><B>atusb</B> uses an
Atmel
<A href="http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/product_card.asp?part_id=4602">
ATmega32U2</A> microcontroller to interface between USB and SPI with
a homebrewn protocol on top of USB.
<BR>
The firmware includes a boot loader allowing easy firmware updates in the
field with the
<A href="http://www.usb.org/developers/devclass_docs/DFU_1.1.pdf">DFU</A>
protocol.
<BR>
This boot loader occupies a fixed 4 kB of the 32 kB of Flash memory in
<B>atusb</B>. The "application" currently uses another 6 kB. Developers
wishing to extend or replace the firmware thus have between 22 and
28 kB available for experiments.
<P>
While not an immediate project goal, it may be possible to
write firmware for <B>atusb</B> that turns it into a transparent
gateway for legacy operating systems and protocols.
<H2>Status and resources</H2>
Here is an overview of the status of the various project elements:
<P>
<TABLE>
<TR bgcolor="#d0d0d0"><TH>Element<TH>Status<TH>Links
<TR><TH align="left">Schematics<TD bgcolor="#80ff80" align="center">Done
<TD><A href="http://projects.qi-hardware.com/schhist/atben/">atben</A>,
<A href="http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/wpan/tmp/atusb-20160322-eeplot.pdf">atusb</A>
<TR><TH align="left">Layout<TD bgcolor="#80ff80" align="center">Done
<TD><A href="http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/wpan/tmp/atben-110324-overview.png">atben</A>,
<A href="http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/wpan/tmp/atusb-110330-overview.png">atusb</A>
<TR><TH align="left">Test software<TD bgcolor="#80ff80" align="center">Done
<TD><A href="http://projects.qi-hardware.com/index.php/p/ben-wpan/source/tree/master/prod">scripts</A>,
<A href="http://projects.qi-hardware.com/index.php/p/ben-wpan/source/tree/master/tools">tools</A>,
<A href="http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/wpan/prod/">description</A>
<TR><TH align="left">Production<TD bgcolor="#80ff80" align="center">Done
<TD><A href="http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Ben_WPAN#Production_Notes">Production notes</A>, factory files:
<A href="http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/wpan/fab/atben-pcb-110330.tar.gz">PCB</A> and
<A href="http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/wpan/fab/atben-smt-110330.tar.gz">SMT</A>
<TR><TH align="left">Firmware<TD bgcolor="#80ff80" align="center">
Done
<TD><A href="http://projects.qi-hardware.com/index.php/p/ben-wpan/source/tree/master/atusb/fw">source</A>,
<A href="atusb-0.3.dfu">0.3 release</A>
<TR><TH align="left">Device driver<TD bgcolor="#80ff80" align="center">
Done
<TD><A
href="https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/net/ieee802154/atusb.c">In Linux mainline since 4.2 </A>
<TR><TH align="left">MAC layer<TD bgcolor="#80ff80" align="center">
Done
<TD><A href="https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tree/master/net/ieee802154">In Linux mainline</A>
<TR><TH align="left">IPv4 hack<TD bgcolor="#80ff80" align="center">Done
<TD><A href="http://projects.qi-hardware.com/index.php/p/ben-wpan/source/tree/master/tools/dirtpan">dirtpan</A>
<TR><TH align="left">6LoWPAN stack<TD bgcolor="#80ff80" align="center">Done
<TD><A href="https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tree/master/net/6lowpan">In Linux mainline</A>
</TABLE>
<P>
<H2>Further reading</H2>
We have a more detailed
<A href="http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Ben_WPAN">wiki page</A>.
<BR>
Discussions related to the project take place on the Qi-Hardware
<A href="http://lists.en.qi-hardware.com/mailman/listinfo/discussion">mailing
list</A> and on the
<A href="http://webchat.freenode.net/?randomnick=1&channels=qi-hardware">#qi-hardware
channel</A> on
<A href="http://freenode.net/">freenode</A>.
<BR>
Shop link at sysmocom:
<A href="http://shop.sysmocom.de/products/atusb">atusb</A>.
<P>
<HR>
Last update: 2017-05-10&nbsp;&nbsp;
<A href="mailto:werner@almesberger.net"><I>Werner Almesberger</I></A>,
<A href="mailto:stefan@datenfreihafen.org"><I>Stefan Schmidt</I></A>
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