Hello All,
I just come to know that CC2500 from TI and RFM70 from HOPE RF have addressing mechanism so i think we can implement the Zigbee stack on these modules.
But i am stuck as don’t know what are the Protocol i have to follow. I also come to know that there are some code stacks available by MICROCHIP and TI for the same can anyone give me some more detail please.
Speaking as one experienced in this field, you don’t want to attempt a “ZigBee” stack yourself. You may know: ZigBee is the intellectual property of and is licensed by the ZigBee Alliance. ZigBee is a network layer than relies upon a data link layer defined by IEEE 802.15.4 - which is an open standard. It might make sense to implement 802.15.4 without Zigbee for these other radios. But this will have to be in North America’s 902-928MHz band. The nature of 802.15.4 would be counter-regulatory (FCC) for 433MHz and 868MHz (in the EU).
Most 802.15.4 applications don’t use ZigBee. The smart meter/AMR/AMI world in electrical utilities and natural gas do sometimes use ZigBee, but most use a wireless protocol proprietary to the meter vendors. That industry is pushing for ZigBee to link the meter to high-energy appliances so the utility company can “load-shed” (turn off) at their whim!
There are off the shelf modules of 802.15.4 from about 20 manufacturers. Most are for 2.4GHz. A few use 902-928MHz. They cost about $20-30 and many come with regulatory agency type acceptance for several countries.
Many of the HopeRF modules use the SI Labs chips. On SI Labs website for those chips is an elaborate set of reliable datagram protocols you might consider.
The TI CC25xx is functionally the same chip as SI Labs’ - and has the same considerations.
Thanks a lot sir for solving my doubts. And Thanks for all these information i was totally in dark about this.
-MadhaV
Good day, Madhav -
15.4 is a nice radio technology, and as stevech points out, covers the MAC/PHY. It is true that most 15.4 silicon is sold into applications that do not use ZigBee networking, which sits atop the 15.4 radio. That is changing, especially as RF4CE (consumer electronics remote controls) and smart utility meters are ramping up now.
ZigBee networking and all the application profiles (like Smart Energy, Health Care, Home Automation, Retail, Telecom, etc.) were developed over the years by the ZigBee Alliance. I don’t know of one vendor that supplies a ZigBee stack that could run on another vendor’s silicon platform, for many reasons, some more obvious than others 
However, all is not lost. Akiba over at freaklabs.org has developed an open ZigBee stack.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/freakz/
I do not have any experience with the freaklabs stuff, but Akiba does some nice stuff.
Good luck - Jon
Jon Adams
Just be sure you know the difference between IEEE 802.15.4 and Zigbee. They are not synonyms any more than 802.3 is a synonym for TCP/IP.
jonadams:
Good day, Madhav -15.4 is a nice radio technology, and as stevech points out, covers the MAC/PHY. It is true that most 15.4 silicon is sold into applications that do not use ZigBee networking, which sits atop the 15.4 radio. That is changing, especially as RF4CE (consumer electronics remote controls) and smart utility meters are ramping up now.
ZigBee networking and all the application profiles (like Smart Energy, Health Care, Home Automation, Retail, Telecom, etc.) were developed over the years by the ZigBee Alliance. I don’t know of one vendor that supplies a ZigBee stack that could run on another vendor’s silicon platform, for many reasons, some more obvious than others
However, all is not lost. Akiba over at freaklabs.org has developed an open ZigBee stack.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/freakz/
I do not have any experience with the freaklabs stuff, but Akiba does some nice stuff.
Good luck - Jon
Jon Adams
Thanks for the Link Jon Sir.
stevech:
Just be sure you know the difference between IEEE 802.15.4 and Zigbee. They are not synonyms any more than 802.3 is a synonym for TCP/IP.
Yeah Stevech Sir,
I am studying for the Zigbee Standards but just got some other workload from Company so i am not able to concentrate fully on Zigbee. but i will come back with bang. 