OpenThread is an open source implementation of Thread networking protocols developed by the Thread group. It allows 802.15.4-capable devices to build robust dynamic mesh networks. This document provides the reader with instructions on how to run a Thread application using the OpenThread stack with the QPG7015M.
The QPG7015M (specification) is an IEEE 802.15.4 / Bluetooth® Low Energy Multi-Protocol Multi-Channel Communications Controller for ultra-low power wireless communications for gateways, Smart speakers, Zigbee®/Thread nodes and other Smart Home devices, featuring Qorvo’s ConcurrentConnect™ technology. For IEEE 802.15.4 communications, antenna diversity offers additional robustness in a crowded wireless 2.4 GHz environment. The integrated Power Amplifier (PA) delivers transmit power up to +20 dBm for extended range. ConcurrentConnect™ technology: allowing instantaneous switching between Bluetooth Low Energy and IEEE 802.15.4 protocols with no observable blind spots.
The QPG7015M Development Kit contains a Raspberry Pi (RPi), a QPG7015M module and an SD card with the necessary drivers.
Currently OpenThread can only be built using a Unix based system. In this manual we will use a Debian based environment (as does OpenThread)
Make sure the package repositories are up date
sudo apt-get update
Next install Git
sudo apt-get install git -y
Get a cross compiler toolchain for Raspberry Pi
git clone https://github.com/raspberrypi/tools.git
The toolchain can now be found under
tools/arm-bcm2708/arm-bcm2708hardfp-linux-gnueabi/bin
Running Thread on a QPG7015M is split into two major blocks: the Host and the QPG7015M firmware. The latter is preprogrammed and requires no user interaction.
From top to bottom: Note: paths are relative to the root of the ot-qorvo repository
- The Application:
- location:
openthread/example/apps - what: For this example the OpenThread CLI application will be built. This application allows the manipulation of the Thread stack over a serial interface.
- location:
- OpenThread Stack:
This block can be further split into three blocks (also top-down)
- Thread
- location:
openthread/src/ - what: implements the Thread specification. It can be configured through a set of configure switches.
- location:
- Platform glue code:
- location:
src/qpg7015m - what: code to interface OpenThread with platform specific things such as alarms, storage, random number generator, …
- location:
- Drivers and platform interfaces
- location:
third_party/Qorvo/repo/qpg7015m, but hosted in a Qorvo repository - what: Qorvo specific code, MAC Dispatcher client and libraries required to build for and interface with the QPG7015M kernel drivers.
specifically(relative to location):
lib/libQorvoQPG7015M_ftd.a: library for Full Thread Device supportlib/libQorvoQPG7015M_mtd.a: library for Minimal Thread Device support
- location:
- Thread
- Kernel drivers
- Driver
.kofiles, the necessary deploy instruction and other documentation need to be obtained through appsupport@qorvo.com or through your business contact.
- Driver
All the parts in User space will be compiled into a single executable .elf file. This executable communicates with the RPi kernel drivers provided in the QPG7015M Development Kit.
To obtain the Development Kit and associated drivers contact us at appsupport@qorvo.com or through your business contact.
First get the latest version of ot-qorvo and its submodules
git clone https://github.com/openthread/ot-qorvo
cd ot-qorvo
git submodule update --init --recursive
The git submodule update command will populate the openthread directory with the openthread core implementation and third_party/Qorvo/repo with pre-compiled libraries.
All commands and scripts are run from the openthread root directory.
To resolve any outstanding dependencies to build OpenThread, run the optional
./script/bootstrap
Note 1: The script will install a gnu embedded toolchain, but the one in Prerequisites will be used in this example. Note 2: The final step of this script will fail if Linuxbrew is not installed. The error can be ignored.
This is the most common build. It enables the user to control the thread stack parameters, to join/commission devices, etc. by connecting to a Command Line Interface (CLI) server.
Note: This guide will cross compile for the Raspberry Pi. It is possible to make the builds natively on a Raspberry Pi, but we found the cross compilation to be faster.
First, add the compiler to $PATH
export PATH=<path-to-tools>/tools/arm-bcm2708/arm-bcm2708hardfp-linux-gnueabi/bin/:$PATH
The basic build command for the QPG7015M is:
./script/build qpg7015m
This will build the CLI application for both the Minimal Thread Device and the Full Thread Device simultaneously. The output will be the following .elf files located in ./build/bin
qpg7015m-ot-cli-ftd.elfqpg7015m-ot-cli-mtd.elf
OpenThread provides a series of configuration switches to enable additional functionality in the build. For a list of the regular and the advanced features we refer you to common-switches.mk and the enhanced feature menu on the build instructions landing page, respectively.
For a FTD the following build command can be used
./script/build qpg7015m -DOT_COMMISSIONER=1 -DOT_DHCP6_CLIENT=1 -DOT_DHCP6_SERVER=1
For a MTD, the following is sufficient
./script/build qpg7015m -DOT_DHCP6_CLIENT=1
Note: both the above command will always build both the FTD and MTD executable. But it is unnecessary for a MTD device to support e.g. the Commissioner role or the DHCP server functionality.
Programming the executable, means just copying it to a RPi and making sure it is executable.
chmod +x qpg7015m-ot-cli-ftd.elf
To run it, one first has to make sure the kernel drivers are loaded and have a communications channel with the *.elf. Instructions for this come with the QPG7015M Development Kit.
Run the executable
./qpg7015m-ot-cli-ftd.elf
This launches the CLI client.
Validating the Thread operation can be done by running the scenarios here.
Please visit www.qorvo.com for more information on our product line, or more specifically the QPG7015M product page or contact us at appsupport@qorvo.com.
Additional generic information can be found on