Qorvo: Solving the Challenge of Many Devices
with Multiple Standards in the Connected HomeWhite Paper

Introduction
The number of connected devices within our homes continues
to rise as consumers increasingly rely on them for convenience,
comfort, health and safety. Some are inside our homes; someare outside. And while these devices are designed to be partof a network, they often communicate via different standards –languages, if you will – depending on the application.
Most of us are familiar with the Wi-Fi standard, which enables content sharing and internet
access in the home. But there are a number of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies otherthan Wi-Fi, such as Bluetooth® Low Energy (LE), Zigbee® and Thread®. These low-power,
low-data-rate wireless standards are commonly used in IoT-connected products such as
door locks, LED lighting and appliances. The challenge that these multiple and different
technologies pose is that vendors must decide in advance what kind of technology they
are selecting for their device. For example, in selecting either Zigbee or Bluetooth LE –or both – each choice has its own impact in terms of product design.
Looking forward, there are other technologies coming that are targeting similar smart
home use cases, such as Matter, guided by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (formerlyZigbee Alliance), which combines multiple technologies (802.15.4 and Bluetooth LE) into asingle standard. This can make the choice between technologies and future-proof solutions
even more challenging.
While today’s communications devices have some form of dynamic multi-protocol (DMP)
support, this approach requires different types of tradeoffs. DMP alone is not sufficient torealize the full benefits of the connected home. Truly seamless connectivity can only beachieved by the ability to listen to and hear all devices on the network simultaneously,
not just a few.

1ConcurrentConnect™ Technology
as a Solution
Today, customers have the benefit of not having to choose or compromise. The next major
leap in multi-standard capabilities – ConcurrentConnect technology, a unique capability fromQorvo – fluently and continuously services two or multiple networks using different
protocols, whether Zigbee + Matter or Zigbee + Bluetooth LE to a smartphone or Matter+ Bluetooth LE Mesh, or other multi-network protocol use cases. The ConcurrentConnect
technology will deliver the unique experience of seamless operation of devices in the homethat are connected via different networks without performance loss.
To illustrate, let’s look at a real-world network situation combining Zigbee or Thread andBluetooth LE devices using a standard node without ConcurrentConnect support. Since thenode does not have concurrent connection/listening abilities, it switches back and forth
between these standards and has to communicate with one standard at a time. In addition
to the obvious inefficiency, this switching can result in dropped communications and latency,
as only one standard is communicated while the other is blocked until the medium becomes
free again. Thus, in a set timeframe the amount of communication is challenged.
With a node that utilizes ConcurrentConnect technology, concurrent listening is achieved,
which in turn allows near-instantaneous switching from Bluetooth LE to Zigbee or Threadwith little or no dropped communications. Thus, the communications between devices arefaster, more efficient, more scalable and able to receive more data packets. This enables
unprecedented single-device concurrency capabilities between these protocols.

Application

Qorvo® Software Development Kit API

Zigbee Stack

Bluetooth® Stack

Thread Stack

802.15.4 MAC

Bluetooth® Low Energy Link Layer

Packet Detection and Identiﬁcation
Qorvo® Silicon
Arm Cortex-M4 Processor IP
Qorvo’s unique single-chip, single-radio solution, combined with a powerful softwaredevelopment kit, can manage data traffic from multiple standards or protocols at the sametime and with no detectable latency. Plus, designers can reduce part content, resultingin smaller, sleeker form factors and lower product costs that are easier to support. With
ConcurrentConnect support, the options for customers to develop innovative use cases arevirtually unlimited, as they have greater flexibility in standards support.

2Why Arm?
Connectivity is the necessary means to the desired home automation application. Givencurrent trends in the market, all home devices will soon be running some sort of machinelearning (ML). The Cortex-M4 32-bit processor is widely supported in the tinyML communityand Arm is a strong proponent of tinyML because our microcontroller architectures are socentral to the IoT, and because we see the potential of on-device inference.
Arm’s collaboration with Google is making it even easier for developers to deploy endpoint
machine learning in power-conscious environments. The combination of Arm CMSIS-NN
libraries with Google’s TensorFlow Lite Micro (TFLu) framework, allows software developers
to take advantage of Arm’s hardware optimizations and achieve accelerated performance
without needing to become experts in embedded programming. On top of this, Arm isinvesting in new tools to accelerate ML and IoT development. Keil Studio Cloud is a newbrowser-based IDE with direct Git integration for enabling distributed teams, collaborative
development and modern CI workflows for rapid IoT and AI device development.
Learn more about how tinyML enables the smallest AI devices.

1
1

Connect tohigh-level
frameworks
2
Connect to
RuntimeProﬁling anddebugging
tooling such as
Arm Keil MDK
and Keil Studio

2

Application

Optimized Arm Keil MDK and Keil Studio Models for Embedded

3

Runtime (e.g. TensorFlow Lite)

3
Supported byend-to-end tooling

Optimized NN algorithms (e.g CMSIS-NN)

Any OS

Arm Cortex CPUs and microNPUs

SummaryStandards are scattered and devices are developing quickly. Qorvo’s unique
ConcurrentConnect technology is the next step beyond dynamic multi-protocol support.
It brings to the IoT market a very high degree of efficiency that is enabling a new levelof concurrence and allowing designers and consumers to keep their options open
across multiple protocols and standards. It is no longer necessary for them to choose orcompromise as almost any use case becomes possible.
By selecting the Cortex-M4 as the host processor, the Qorvo solution opens the door forOEMs to easily and quickly deploy tinyML enabled home automation gadgets across multiple
radio networks used in the home.

More information
Qorvo
www.qorvo.com

QPG6100

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