nRF24L01 data rate

Wireless & IoT
1

I have an application where for an over air data link:

  1. Full duplex rate of ~360kbps (sustained)

  2. Indoor environment (auditorium/theatre)

  3. 50m line-of-sight (more or less)

Can the nRF24L01 can handle this? Do you think this could be done with a chip or PCB antenna (though I would probably stick with a proper antenna anyway)?

Thanks in advance,

Pete

2

If you need full-duplex, you’ll have to get two 24L01 chips and put them on different frequencies, since the 24L01 is only capable of half-duplex. However, with two of them, you should be able to acheive that data rate relatively easy as long as you have a good board layout and relatively low ambient RF interference.

With a good layout, you should be able to pull this off with a chip antenna. However, I would imagine that you would have a lot more success in using a whip antenna since the chip antennae that I use will consistently drop some packets at this distance, even with a good layout.

3

I was thinking of doing a ping-pong protocol to get bidirectional data from a pair of units. Assuming 2Mbps 32-byte packet bursts, and given the Rx and Tx settling times (130us), this might actually be possible – though 360kpbs duplex would be in the upper limits.

Just thinking off the top of my head as I was chewing on lunch:

Could use the ACK packet to carry data in the opposite direction. That would mean one side is the master that would compell a bidirectional data transfer. Might actually work as an inherent flow-control mechanism.

Does the 130us settling time also occur between when the PRX receives a packet, and then transmits the ACK packet?

I am new to the nRF24xxx, so I am probably overlooking potential pitfalls…