Microchip Stack for the ZigBee Protocol

AN965 Microchip Stack for the ZigBee™ Protocol ASSUMPTION Author: David Flowers, Kim Otten, Yifeng Yang and Nilesh Rajbharti This document assumes that you are familiar with the Microchip Technology Inc. C programming language. This document uses extensive terminology from the ZigBee protocol and IEEE 802.15.4™ specifications and provides a brief INTRODUCTION overview of the ZigBee protocol specification. You are advised to read the ZigBee protocol and IEEE 802.15.4 ZigBee™ is a wireless network protocol specifically specifications in detail.designed for low data rate sensors and control net- works. There are a number of applications that can benefit from the ZigBee protocol: building automation FEATURES networks, home security systems, industrial control The Microchip Stack for the ZigBee protocol is networks, remote metering and PC peripherals are designed to evolve with the ZigBee wireless protocol some of the many possible applications. specification. At the time this document was published, Compared to other wireless protocols, the ZigBee the current ZigBee protocol specification version was wireless protocol offers low complexity, reduced v1.0. This document applies to Microchip Stack resource requirements and most importantly, a stan- releases v1.0-3.8 and greater. dard set of specifications. It also offers three frequency The Microchip Stack offers the following features: bands of operation along with a number of network configurations and optional security capability. Certified ZigBee protocol v1.0 compliant platform Support for 2.4 GHz frequency band If you are currently exploring alternatives to your existing control network technologies, such as RS-422, RS-485 Support for all ZigBee protocol device types or proprietary wireless protocol, the ZigBee protocol (Coordinators, Routers and End devices) could be the solution you need. Implements nonvolatile storage for neighbor and binding tables This application note is specifically designed to assist you in adopting the ZigBee protocol for your applica- Portable across many of the PIC18 family of tion. You can use the Microchip Stack for the ZigBee microcontrollers protocol provided in this application note to quickly RTOS and application independent build your application. To illustrate the usage of the ® Out-of-box support for Microchip MPLAB C18 Stack, several working demo applications are included. compiler You can use these demo applications as a reference or Modular design and standard nomenclature aligns simply modify and adopt them to your requirements. with the nomenclature used in the ZigBee Note: Please note that in order to distribute a protocol and IEEE 802.15.4 specifications product that utilizes the Microchip Stack For the latest features and enhancements over previ- for the ZigBee protocol, you must become ous releases, refer to the Readme file distributed with a ZigBee Adopter through the ZigBee the source code for the Microchip Stack for the Alliance. ZigBee™ Protocol. Commonly asked questions about the Microchip Stack and its usage, along with their answers, are provided at LIMITATIONS the end of this document in "Answers to Common Version 1.0-3.8 of the Microchip Stack for the ZigBee Questions". Protocol is the first version to be granted the status of