MiWi network basics.

INTRODUCTION:
The MiWi development environment is the wireless solution for developing applications offered by Microchip. It is one of promising alternatives for ZigBee, the most common and widespread wireless protocol for application developers. To minimize the disadvantages of ZigBee, MiWi aims to be light, simple,low-cost,low data rate, and low power consumption.Therefore, MiWi protocol provides an easy-to-use alternative for simple wireless communication. It is particular method for making smaller applications that needs relatively small network size, with few hops between. The maximum number of hops between is 4. MiWi has 2 interface to manage it. One is MiMAC interface which communicate with Microchip RF transceivers and the other is MiApp interface which interact with application layer.

FEATURES
The current implementation of the MiWi protocol has these features: Support for the 2.4 GHz spectrum through the MRF24J40 transceiver Support for all IEEE 802.15.4 device types Portable across PIC16, PIC18, PIC24 and dsPIC33 devices RTOS and application independent Out-of-box support for the MPLAB C18 and C30 compilers

TERMINOLOGY
In describing the MiWi protocol, two specific terms areused throughout that are borrowed from the IEEE standard.The first term is cluster, which refers to a grouping ofnodes that form a network. A MiWi protocol cluster canbe up to 3 nodes deep and is controlled by a clusterhead.In the current implementation of the MiWi protocol,the cluster-head is always the PAN coordinator. (Forfurther information, see Table 3 on page 2.) The second term is socket, which refers to a virtualconnection between two devices. Rather than have an exclusive hard-wired connection between devices,many devices with many types of sockets share a common communications medium and use somecommon method to associate applications and devices. When a new device or application is added tothe network, it requires configuration to talk to other devices or applications. By using sockets, nodes in thenetwork can find communication partners dynamicallywithout having to know any information about them.

2 Technology capabilities
High-level overview: Based on the MAC and PHY layers of the IEEE 802.15.4 specification For simple network development in the 2.4 GHz and subGHz ISM frequency band. Capable of having a maximum of 1024 nodes on a network.

 Each coordinator is only capable of having 27 children, with a maximum of 8 coordinators in a network. Packets can travel a maximum of 4 hops in the network and 2 hops maximum from the PAN coordinator. Find, form and join a network, as well as discover nodes on the network and route to them. However, do not cover any application-specific issues: how to select which network to join to, how to decided when a link is broken or how often devices should communicate. Support all Microchip RF transceivers on different frequency bands Portable between various Microchip MCU families

3 Typical application fields, domains and products using MiWi

MiWi allows users to rapidly evaluate and begin developing a wide range of wireless network applications: building/home automation (security,HVAC, lighting, access); industrial (monitors, sensors, automation, control, lighting); personal healthcare (monitors, diagnostic tools); and consumer electronics (RF wireless remote controls for TV/VCR/DVD/CD, toys).

4 The working principle

Network topology Among 3 device types MiWi protocol has, the most crucial one is a PAN coordinator. The role of PAN coordinator is to start network and to select which channel to connect and the PAN ID of network. Pther divices connected to Pan should be under control by PAN instructions. Three kinds of topology can be found in MiWI network: Star, Cluster tree, and Mesh Network Configuration. Star Network Configuration In the first configuration, there is only one PAN coordinator node connected with one or more end devices, each device is connected only with a PAN coordinator.

Cluster Tree Network Configuration There is only one PAN coordinator, but it is possible to connect to other coordinators in a network. Each coordinator has one or more devices. This forms a tree-like structure.

Mesh Network Configuration This configuration is almost same with cluster tree network configuration. The only difference between two is that FFDs can route messages directly to other FFDs. The advantages of this topology are that the message latency can be reduced and reliability can be increased.

MiWi Development Environment mainly consists of two interface layers MiApp - Using the MiApp interface layer, the application developer can easily switch between different Microchip proprietary wireless protocols such as MiWi Mesh and MiWi P2P without having to change the application firmware. MiMAC - Using MiMAC layer, the developer can easily switch between different RF transceivers such as MRF24J40 and MRF89XA.

5 The information processes

All the devices belonging to MiWi protocol network can use its short address to establish communication though the network, helping other devices to find the node and the route to it. Packet Format: MiWi uses 16 bits address to send and receive the messages. MiWi gives address allocations, routing services and other optional services to reach more rapidly solutions, creating connections dynamically or searching for specific devices. Routing: MiWi uses the address allocation to indicate the devices parent to help to exchange information and to relay routing information.

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Broadcast Messages: MiWi protocol network coordinator rebroadcasts the packet as long as the Hops counter (the first byte of the header) is not zero, when it receives a broadcast packet. Reports: reports are special packets to transport information between devices. It is allowed to implement up to 256 report types, and up to 256 separate report IDs (function of the packet) for each report type.

6 Performance characteristics, inputs and outputs

The network discovery feature searches the available channels for networks and chooses which network to join. After that each device has to search and determine to which coordinator it will join. The failure recovery doesnt default to either implementation: to dynamically heal when parts of the network or stay as unchanged as possible, even when failures do occur (depending on the developers). ACKs are used to determine when there is a network failure: if packet reached the destination correctly or the packet did not make it to the destination successfully. This implementation do not determines when to communicate: if an application has to do that, it should be added in at the application level or it should change the Stack functionality. The nodes can promote to a PAN coordinator if the PAN coordinator fails.

The nodes may change their parents when there are failures. When a node is communicating with another node and the parent fails, the node has to look for another parent. Means of forming dynamic bonds between two devices through the request are provided by the Stark to establish indirect connection. And when the request returns as a result, it indicates that another device was looking for a communication partner in the same time frame. PAN coordinator and coordinator dont have much difference in function, so it is possible to create a coordinator that will take on the role of a PAN coordinator .

7 Other Sources
Representative transceiver of MiWi: MRF24J40.

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Features of MRF24J40 IEEE 802.15.4 transceiver: A Complete IEEE 802.15.4 radio Supports ZigBee and MiWi protocols Hardware security engine (AES-128) Hardware CSMA-CA Mechanism Packet retransmit capability Low current consumption Small 40-pin leadless QFN 66 mm2 package

Review and explanation

Nowadays, as the market for smart phones or smart tablets getting grower, the ability of designers to deal with ubiquitous technology is getting under consideration. It means that the realm designers can manage is getting wider. For them, especially for beginners, MiWi can be one of the good starters to jump in the ubiquitous technology world. As

it is based on the IEEE 802.15.4, it can be the network protocol for a wide range of application fields. And also, because of its simple and lowcost characteristics, designers can be easy to get start developing their ideas without difficulty. Finally, because it is also much lighter than the previous network protocol, ZigBee, simple idea or concept can be tested repeatedly with few bugs.

CONCLUSION
For developers looking for an entry point into wireless networking, the MiWi protocol provides a low-cost platform to ease the development of short-range, wireless,networked applications. Based on an established IEEE standard, the MiWi protocol provides features that help make implementing a simple wireless network easier. It is not intended to address all of the scenarios and decisions required in creating a wireless solution. The MiWi protocol is the entry point for Microchips wireless solution based on IEEE 802.15.4. Users needing a more complex networking solution may want to consider the Microchip implementation of the ZigBee protocol or expanding the MiWi protocol to suit their needs.

REFERENCES
IEEE Std 802.15.4-2003, Wireless Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications for Low Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs). New York: IEEE, 2006. ZENA Wireless Network Analyser Users Guide (DS51506) http://www.microchip.com Microchip Application Note AN965, Microchip Stack for the ZigBee Protocol http://www.microchip.com/zigbee PICDEM Z Demonstration Kit Users Guide (DS51524) http://www.microchip.com