Atmel Lightweight Mesh wireless stack  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 24, 2013, 11:12:56 pm
content: Disclaimer: I'm the author of the stack.Atmel Lightweight Mesh software stack is an easy to use proprietary low power wireless mesh network protocol. It has been designed to address the needs of a wide range of wireless connectivity applications.The Lightweight Mesh is designed to work with all Atmel IEEE 802.15.4 transceivers and SoCs.The current implementation of the Lightweight Mesh protocol has the following features:Simplicity of configuration and useUp to 65535 nodes in one network (theoretical limit)Up to 65535 separate PANs on one channelUp to 15 independent application endpointsNo dedicated node is required to start a networkNo periodic service traffic occupying bandwidthTwo distinct types of nodes: routing and non-routingOnce powered on node is ready to send and receive data; no special joining procedure is requiredRoute discovery happens automatically if route to the destination is not knownNo child-parent relationship between the nodesRouting table is updated automatically based on the data from the received and transmitted framesDuplicate frames (broadcast or multipath unicast) are rejectedOptional AODV route discoveryMulticast messagingSmall footprint (less than 8kB of Flash and 4kB of RAM for a typical application)Stack is open-source, but license limits its use only to Atmel MCUs and radios.Software can be downloaded here:http://www.atmel.com/tools/lightweight_mesh.aspxI'm available to answer any questions you might have and provide as much support as I can.

author: Len
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 24, 2013, 11:39:35 pm
content: Quote from: ataradov on June 24, 2013, 11:12:56 pmThat's not open-source.http://opensource.org/osd

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 24, 2013, 11:45:27 pm
content: Source code is available and open as in "everyone can download and look at it". Simply because some other entity has redefined meaning of "open-source" it does not mean that it can not be used otherwise.As far as FSF is concerned, "open-source" means just open, so they've invented "free".PS: Anyway, there is not much I can do about it; I'd prefer it to be completely free.

author: Len
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 25, 2013, 12:41:26 am
content: I'm afraid you're the one who's re-defining "open source,"according to the FSFas well as the OSI and everyone I've ever heard talk about it.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 25, 2013, 11:01:52 am
content: Stop jammering about open sauce.You get all the sourcecode for the stack. No secrets. It will only run on atmel since it is written for their rf chips. Every rf chip from different vendors works differently. Registers are different, initialisarion is different, usage is different.This happens to be a wad of sourcecode that implements an easy to use mesh network written for a particular set of rf chips.I say it's great ! A bunch of work done. We can use it without having to pay for it. I call that 'free'.It's the perpetual whining of the FSF and other open-sores purists that makes people eschew them.

author: Rasz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 25, 2013, 11:13:15 am
content: its open source, but not open source license, two different things that sound almost the sameIts typical "you can use it on our product only, no patches, no sharing, no distributing". Same deal as with Microchip USB stack

author: cthree
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2013, 12:01:27 am
content: Hellooo Alex! Great to see you on the EEVBLOG forum!He knows his shit as anyone who has spent time on the AVRfreaks wireless forum will attest.BitCloud is a good ZigBee stack. I'm fine with picking a wireless SoC and using the free software they provide to do the mundane task of moving a bit from here to there. If you want to switch platforms to say Ti, then use their stack instead. It is also free but requires IAR which is obscenely expensive. The last time I used it, the BitCloud stack compiled with AVRGCC.I haven't used your Atmel lightweight mesh stack, maybe someday.If anyone out there wants to write a GNU/MIT/APACHE licensed mesh network stack that works with any transceiver/microcontroller pair or SoC, go for it! I will applaud your efforts.