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You're reading from Building Wireless Sensor Networks Using Arduino

Product typeBook

Published inOct 2015

Publisher

ISBN-139781784395582

Edition1st Edition

Tools

Arduino

Concepts

Robotics

Author (1)

Matthijs Kooijman

Other XBee families

The ZigBee network structure used by the XBee ZB modules is the most complex of all the XBee modules discussed in this book. The other modules do not require having a central coordinator or going through a join procedure, but instead rely on manually assigning a 16-bit network identifier (ID) and operating channel (CH) on all nodes (except XBee-PRO 868, which only has one channel available). Security is also simpler: every node has the network key (KY) manually configured. There is no key distribution mechanism.

For the XBee 802.15.4 family, this applies in the default configuration, but there is a second mode where a simple join procedure can allow nodes to automatically detect the right channel and/or network identifier to use (the network key must still be manually configured).

DigiMesh and XBee 868 networks use only a 64-bit address for each node and all transmissions. All nodes in an 802.15.4 network have a 64-bit address and can optionally have a manually assigned 16-bit address too (MY). Sending a packet in a 802.15.4 network uses either a 64-bit or 16-bit destination address (but, if you use a 64-bit address, the full address is transmitted over the air; there is no mechanism to look up the 16-bit address and use that in packets as with ZigBee).

XBee 802.15.4 and XBee-PRO 868 networks do not have any mesh capabilities, so you can only send messages between nodes that can directly hear each other. DigiMesh networks do support meshing similar to ZigBee.

Some other families also have device roles such as coordinator or end device, though the difference between them is less than in ZigBee networks. See the relevant product manual for details.

Configuration values

If you followed the preceding examples, you should have configured the following values on all your XBee modules:

AP=2 to enable API mode with escaping
ID=<your PAN ID> to prevent joining other networks
EE=1 to enable security
KY=<random 32-digit key> to prevent others without this key from joining the network
NJ=0 to prevent new nodes from joining

The changes to DH and DL were only needed for the AT mode examples and are no longer relevant in API mode.

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Building Wireless Sensor Networks Using Arduino

Published in: Oct 2015Publisher: ISBN-13: 9781784395582

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Author (1)

Matthijs Kooijman

Matthijs Kooijman is an independent embedded software developer who is firmly connected with the maker movement through a local fab lab and his work on the Arduino project. Since his youth, Matthijs has been interested in making things; for example, he built his first television remote control before the age of 10 (using a piece of rope to pull on the volume slider, not a solution that he would choose today). Matthijs has a firm belief in the merits of open source software and enjoys contributing to the software that he uses—both by coding and helping out other users. His work experience is broad—ranging from Web development to Linux driver hacking, from tech support to various forms of wireless networking, but almost always related to open source software in some way.
Read more about Matthijs Kooijman

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