Support for other 802.15.4 network standards as well as Bluetooth 4.2?

[davydnorris]

Hi Espressif,

Firstly big congratulations on the ESP32 release - I have been very excited to see this chip for a while now.

I was very, VERY interested in your announcement of built in BLE/Bluetooth 4.2 support, because this meant you have built in 802.15.4 radio layer.

Will you also be supporting other 802.15.4 based radio protocols such as Zigbee and 6loWPAN?? That would be AMAZING!!

[WiFive]

I was very, VERY interested in your announcement of built in BLE/Bluetooth 4.2 support, because this meant you have built in 802.15.4 radio layer.

Are you sure you aren't confusing that with 6lowpan over Bluetooth (6LoBTLE) which is independent of 802.15.4?

They did say 802.15.4 might be possible, but I don't see it happening any time soon.

[davydnorris]

No, I thought Bluetooth 4.2 ran over an 802.15.x radio but perhaps I am mistaken.

I've previously been using the TI CC2650 radio chip which supports BLE, Zigbee, and 6loWPAN native on a 802.15.4 radio and I so I thought they were all built on the same physical layer, and it got my hopes up for the ESP32, but maybe they are not.

http://www.ti.com/product/cc2650

[WiFive]

No, I thought Bluetooth 4.2 ran over an 802.15.x radio but perhaps I am mistaken.

I've previously been using the TI CC2650 radio chip which supports BLE, Zigbee, and 6loWPAN native on a 802.15.4 radio and I so I thought they were all built on the same physical layer, and it got my hopes up for the ESP32, but maybe they are not.

http://www.ti.com/product/cc2650

Well Bluetooth is 802.15.1 but unless the chipset is specifically designed to be flexible like cc2650 there is no guarantee that you can do both 802.15.1 and 802.15.4 because there are differences.

[davydnorris]

Shame.

With the CC2650 you change protocols simply by flashing a new stack. I thought it would be as simple as that with the ESP32

[WiFive]

Yes flexibility is nice, but the vast majority of chipsets are either 802.15.1 or 802.15.4. Even TI has skus for the single mode versions 2620, 2630, 2640.

6LoBLEMesh could be a good option, unless you are trying to interface with existing 802.15.4 products.