What is OpenThread?

OpenThread is...

...an open-source implementation of the Thread networking protocol. Nest has released OpenThread to make the technology used in Nest products more broadly available to developers to accelerate the development of products for the connected home.

...OS and platform agnostic, with a narrow platform abstraction layer and a small memory footprint, making it highly portable.

...a Thread Certified Component, implementing all features defined in the Thread 1.1.1 specification. This specification defines an IPv6-based reliable, secure and low-power wireless device-to-device communication protocol for home applications.

More information about Thread can be found on threadgroup.org.

OpenThread Features

OpenThread implements all features defined in the Thread 1.1.1 specification, including all Thread networking layers (IPv6, 6LoWPAN, IEEE 802.15.4 with MAC security, Mesh Link Establishment, Mesh Routing) and device roles.

OpenThread supports both system-on-chip (SoC) and network co-processor (NCP) designs. Other features and enhancements include:

• Application support and services
  • IPv6 configuration and raw data interface
  • UDP sockets
  • CoAP client and server
  • DHCPv6 client and server
  • DNSv6 client
  • Command Line Interface (CLI)
• NCP support
  • Spinel - general purpose NCP protocol
  • wpantund - user-space NCP network interface driver/daemon
  • Sniffer support via NCP Spinel nodes

Dependent tools to used for Nordic board

SEGGER-JLink:

1.Download the suitable package from SEGGER-JLink.

(or)

For Ubuntu 64-bit sytem download SEGGER-JLink-Ubuntu-64bit.

2.Install the package by double clicking it

(or)

Install the package through command line

$ sudo dpkg -i JLink_Linux_V614h_x86_64.deb

Get started with OpenThread

Open Thread with UWB Radio Abstraction Layer on EVB1000 Radio and Nordic NRF52840 platform

Hardware setup

The Connection details of the Hardware setup is explained in Hardware_setup.md.

Installing Tool chain and Building Openthread Applications.

1.To initialize the Environment Variables, installing Dependent Libraries (First time), setup(clone the OT repo and sym link creation for dw1000) and building the application.

Inside the cloned repo (ot-dw1000) run the script – build_setup.sh INITIAL

$ source ./build_setup.sh INITIAL

2.To initialize the Environment Variables, setup(clone the OT repo and sym link creation for dw1000) and building the application (Next Time on Wards).

Inside the cloned repo (ot-dw1000) run the script – build_setup.sh Update

$ source ./build_setup.sh UPDATE

3.To build the OT CLI and NCP application.

Inside the cloned repo (ot-dw1000) run the script – build_setup.sh

$ source ./build_setup.sh

Flashing the binaries

Use Command line tools for flashing binary on to nrf52840. In the previous steps setup.sh would have installed the command line tools nrfjprog.

$ cd $OT_ROOT/nrfjprog
$ sudo ./nrfjprog -f nrf52 --chiperase --program $OT_ROOT/output/bin/arm-none-eabi-ot-cli-ftd.hex
$ sudo ./nrfjprog -f nrf52 -r

Running the CLI example

1. Prepare two boards with the flashed CLI Example (as shown above).
2. The CLI example uses UART connection. To view raw UART output, start a terminal emulator like PuTTY and connect to the used COM port with the following UART settings:
   • Baud rate: 115200
   • 8 data bits
   • 1 stop bit
   • No parity
   • HW flow control: RTS/CTS

(or)

Use Run the pyterm script provided in the ot-dw1000/openthread-master/tools/pyterm directory. On Linux system a port name should be called e.g. /dev/ttyACM0 or /dev/ttyACM1.

3. Open a terminal connection on the first board and start a new Thread network.

$ cd $OT_ROOT/tools/pyterm
$ sudo ./pyterm -p /dev/ttyACM0
 
> channel 5
Done
> panid 0xdeca
Done
> ifconfig up
Done
> thread start
Done

4. After a couple of seconds the node will become a Leader of the network.

> state
Leader

5. Open a terminal connection on the second board and attach a node to the network.

$ cd $OT_ROOT/tools/pyterm
$ sudo ./pyterm -p /dev/ttyACM1

> channel 5
Done
> panid 0xdeca
Done
> ifconfig up
Done
> thread start
Done

6. After a couple of seconds the second node will attach and become a Child.

> state
Child

7. List all IPv6 addresses of the first board.

> ipaddr
fdde:ad00:beef:0:0:ff:fe00:fc00
fdde:ad00:beef:0:0:ff:fe00:9c00
fdde:ad00:beef:0:4bcb:73a5:7c28:318e
fe80:0:0:0:5c91:c61:b67c:271c

8. Choose one of them and send an ICMPv6 ping from the second board.

> ping fdde:ad00:beef:0:0:ff:fe00:fc00
16 bytes from fdde:ad00:beef:0:0:ff:fe00:fc00: icmp_seq=1 hlim=64 time=8ms

For a list of all available commands, visit OpenThread CLI Reference README.md.

Running the NCP example

The NCP example is explained in NCP_Example.

Thread Border Router Example

The Thread Border Router example is explained in Thread_Border_Router.

COAP based cloud application

The COAP based Cloud application is explained in COAP_CLOUD_APPLICATION.

Known Issues

• Observed that Discover Command displays network info all the channels instead of displaying for active channel.

Known Limitations

ActiveScan have a limitation of displaying only one node information.

• During ActiveScan the node will broadcast a message to all the nodes and wait for responses. Since DW1000 doesn't support CSMA/CA if all the responses are arriving in same time, only one node data will be successfully received by the scan initiator node.
• A PC can support only two nodes while testing Open Thread CLI and NCP Application. While testing open-thread CLI and NCP application with multiple nodes we need to use multiple PCs for pyterm terminal.

Documentation

• Userguide is available in DW1000/doc/PP_DecaWave_MAC_ReleaseNotes.pdf
• ReleaseNote is available in DW1000/doc/PP_DecaWave_MAC_UserGuide.pdf