Design of Dynamic MAC and PHY SoC for Low Power and Long-Range Networks

The aim of this project is to create, develop and prototype a Digitally Intensive Technology Scalable reconfigurable IEEE 802.15.4e Transceiver PHY and dynamic MAC SoC for low power short and long-range networks. It is a joint initiative of MEITY, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Bhubaneshwar, IISc Bangalore and C DAC. ZEN Lab IISc is focused on development of the MAC Stack of IEEE 802.15.4e TSCH mode.

The tremendous growth in wireless communication systems has led to a revelation that by 2020, billions of devices will have widespread connectivity. The remarkable potential in Internet of Things with huge amount of sensors and actuators being spread across large geographical area with connectivity as the key feature for sensing, actuation, connection and analysis ability with its distinct technicality has brought out the widespread scope of IoT in different applications domains like smart cities and industrial communications. The applications like smart cities brings in the concept of a well-connected and organized city with adequate supply of citizens needs in terms of good quality of water, air, energy, transport, availability of necessary supplies. Internet of Things will play a vital role in offering the quality of services as envisioned for smart cities kind of applications. Through this, we can improve the technology available for smart cities and next generation industrial Internet of Things in India.

This project can be bifurcated based on the platform used for developing the MAC stack. The platforms used for development of the MAC stack are as follows:

1. ADF 7242 Chipset: In this part of the project the MAC stack is being developed and tested on the ADF 7242 2.4 GHz radio chipset which is controlled by the Nordic NRF 52840 microcontroller. The MAC stack written in embedded C runs on the microcontroller and all the necessary base band activity happens in the ADF radio chipset. The communication between NRF 52840 and ADF 7242 is established by the SPI protocol.

System architecture used for development of TSCH protocol i.e. ARM + ADF7242

2. GNU Radio: This open source platform is used for the thorough investigation of implementing the 802.15.4e TSCH MAC Layer requirements. Design and deployment of Dynamic MAC for low power short range and long-range networks on commercially available USRPs and 2.4 GHz radio chip set and thorough testing of each MAC stack block, followed by introducing novelties in the MAC Layer after implementation of the protocol.