IEEE 802.15.4
Introduction
IEEE 802.15.4 is a technical standard which defines the operation of low-rate wireless personal area networks (LR-WPANs). For a more detailed overview of this standard, see the IEEE 802.15.4 Wikipedia article.
The most recent version of the standard is accessible through the IEEE GET Program. You need to create a free IEEE account and can then downloading it.
We’re currently following the IEEE 802.15.4-2020 specification. This version is backwards compatible with IEEE 802.15.4-2015, parts of which are contained in the Thread protocol stack. The 2020 version also includes prior extensions that were accepted into the standard, namely IEEE 802.15.4g (SUN FSK) and IEEE 802.15.4e (TSCH) which are of relevance to industrial IoT and automation. For recent developments in UWB ranging technology, see IEEE 802.15.4z which is not yet integrated into the standard’s mainline.
Whenever sections from the standard are cited in the documentation, they refer to IEEE 802.15.4-2020 section, table and figure numbering - unless otherwise specified.
Zephyr supports both, native IEEE 802.15.4 and Thread, with 6LoWPAN. Zephyr’s Thread protocol implementation is based on OpenThread. The IPv6 header compression in 6LoWPAN is used for native IEEE 802.15.4.
Supported Drivers
Zephyr includes a number of in-tree IEEE 802.15.4 radio drivers for various hardware platforms. The following table provides an overview of all available drivers, their vendors, supported frequency bands, bus interfaces, and the Kconfig option used to enable each driver.
Driver |
Vendor |
Compatible |
Frequency Band |
Bus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
CC1200 |
Texas Instruments |
Sub-GHz |
SPI |
|
CC13xx/CC26xx |
Texas Instruments |
2.4 GHz |
On-chip |
|
CC13xx/CC26xx Sub-GHz |
Texas Instruments |
Sub-GHz |
On-chip |
|
CC2520 |
Texas Instruments |
2.4 GHz |
SPI |
|
DW1000 |
Decawave (Qorvo) |
UWB (3.5–6.5 GHz) |
SPI |
|
ESP32 |
Espressif |
2.4 GHz |
On-chip |
|
KW41Z |
NXP |
2.4 GHz |
On-chip |
|
MCR20A |
NXP |
2.4 GHz |
SPI |
|
MCXW |
NXP |
2.4 GHz |
On-chip |
|
nRF5 |
Nordic Semiconductor |
2.4 GHz |
On-chip |
|
RF2XX (AT86RF2xx) |
Atmel (Microchip) |
2.4 GHz / Sub-GHz |
SPI |
|
STM32WBA |
STMicroelectronics |
2.4 GHz |
On-chip |
|
Telink B91 |
Telink Semiconductor |
2.4 GHz |
On-chip |
|
UART Pipe |
Virtual (QEMU) |
N/A (emulated) |
UART |
Note
The UART Pipe driver is a virtual driver used for testing IEEE 802.15.4 networking in QEMU environments. It is not intended for use with real radio hardware.
For detailed configuration options of each driver, refer to the corresponding Kconfig file in drivers/ieee802154/.
API Reference
IEEE 802.15.4 API Overview
Gives an introduction and overview over the whole IEEE 802.15.4 subsystem and all of its APIs, configuration and user interfaces for all audiences.
IEEE 802.15.4 Management API
This is the main subsystem-specific API of interest to IEEE 802.15.4 application developers as it allows to configure the IEEE 802.15.4 subsystem at runtime. Other relevant interfaces for application developers are the typical shell, socket, Kconfig and devicetree APIs that can be accessed through Zephyr’s generic subsystem-independent documentation. Look out for IEEE802154/ieee802154 prefixes there.
IEEE 802.15.4 Driver API
This is the main API of interest to IEEE 802.15.4 driver developers.
IEEE 802.15.4 L2 / Native Stack API
This documents the IEEE 802.15.4 L2 native stack, which neither applications nor drivers will ever access directly. It is called internally by Zephyr’s upper network layers (L3+), its socket and network context abstractions. This API is therefore of interest to IEEE 802.15.4 subsystem contributors only.
OpenThread L2 Adaptation Layer API
Zephyr’s OpenThread L2 platform adaptation layer glues the external OpenThread stack together with Zephyr’s IEEE 802.15.4 protocol agnostic driver API. This API is of interest to OpenThread L2 subsystem contributors only.
The OpenThread API is part of the Thread protocol subsystem and documented there.