Building automation
Industrial grade low power wireless connectivity for building automation and sensor networks
Wireless access point offers multiple wireless protocols for smart buildings and industrial IoT
Wayclouds’ AP300 employs two Nordic nRF52833 SoCs enabling a network of Bluetooth LE and/or Zigbee devices
Nordic Semiconductor today announces that Wayclouds, a Beijing, China-based Internet of Things (IoT) solutions company, has selected Nordic’s nRF52833 Bluetooth® Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) System-on-Chip (SoC) for its ‘Wireless Access Point 300 Series (AP300)’ and ‘Wireless Access Point 100 Series (AP100)’.
The wireless access points are designed for smart verticals—such as smart building, smart office, and industrial IoT—and enable multiprotocol network support while greatly reducing the installation and maintenance costs of secure IoT deployments. In turn, the gateways support systems that offer equipment access and management, video surveillance, artificial intelligence (AI) image accelerated computing, and other application services.
Nordic’s nRF52833 advanced multiprotocol SoC combines a 64MHz, 32-bit Arm® Cortex® M4 processor with floating point unit (FPU), with a 2.4GHz multiprotocol radio (supporting Bluetooth 5.2, Bluetooth mesh, Direction Finding, 2Mbps throughput, and Long Range plus Thread, Zigbee, IEEE 802.15.4, and proprietary 2.4GHz RF protocol software) featuring -95dBm RX sensitivity, with 512kB Flash memory and 128kB RAM. The Dynamic Multiprotocol feature uniquely supports concurrent wireless connectivity of the protocols.
The wireless access points are designed for smart verticals—such as smart building, smart office, and industrial IoT—and enable multiprotocol network support while greatly reducing the installation and maintenance costs of secure IoT deployments. In turn, the gateways support systems that offer equipment access and management, video surveillance, artificial intelligence (AI) image accelerated computing, and other application services.
Interconnecting smart devices
AP300 is a 600g, 200 by 150 by 20.5mm device that can be installed on a ceiling or wall. In addition to the Wi-Fi coverage capabilities provided by traditional wireless access points, AP300 integrates Bluetooth LE, Zigbee and other IoT protocols for interconnecting smart devices. The product integrates two Nordic nRF52833 SoCs with one acting as a dedicated Bluetooth LE gateway and the other as a Zigbee gateway to relay data from networks using either of the short-range protocols to the Cloud. The AP100 wireless access point integrates a single Nordic nRF52833 SoC to provide Bluetooth LE or Zigbee wireless connectivity. Both AP300 and AP100 also implement an infrared (IR) feature for IR connectivity.Nordic’s nRF52833 advanced multiprotocol SoC combines a 64MHz, 32-bit Arm® Cortex® M4 processor with floating point unit (FPU), with a 2.4GHz multiprotocol radio (supporting Bluetooth 5.2, Bluetooth mesh, Direction Finding, 2Mbps throughput, and Long Range plus Thread, Zigbee, IEEE 802.15.4, and proprietary 2.4GHz RF protocol software) featuring -95dBm RX sensitivity, with 512kB Flash memory and 128kB RAM. The Dynamic Multiprotocol feature uniquely supports concurrent wireless connectivity of the protocols.
We selected Nordic’s nRF52833 for AP300 and AP100 mainly because the SoC can support a variety of wireless protocols, and secondly due to important factors like its powerful processor, generous memory capacity, and wireless sensitivity
Mr. Song Lijun, Wayclouds
The nRF52833 is supported by the S113 or S140 SoftDevices, Nordic’s Bluetooth RF protocol stacks. The S140 is a qualified Bluetooth 5.2 stack and includes support for 2 Mbps throughput, Long Range, and improved coexistence through CSA #2. Nordic’s software architecture includes a clear separation between the RF protocol software and Wayclouds’ application code, simplifying development, and ensuring the SoftDevice doesn’t get corrupted when developing, compiling, testing, and verifying the application code.
“In addition, the reference designs and technical support provided by Nordic are excellent, and the company responds to queries in a very timely manner.”
Together with the nRF52833, Nordic’s nRF52840 and nRF52820 multiprotocol SoCs also support Zigbee. The RF protocol plays a foundation role for wireless networks in IoT and Industrial IoT (IIoT) applications. Zigbee, together with Bluetooth LE, Thread, IEEE802.15.4 and 2.4GHz proprietary technologies, form the basis of Nordic’s proven short-range wireless product portfolio. Wayclouds’ AP300 and AP100 products leverage Nordic’s multiprotocol SoCs to offer engineers gateways ready to support Bluetooth LE and Zigbee IoT and IIoT applications.
Multiprotocol network support
“We selected Nordic’s nRF52833 for AP300 and AP100 mainly because the SoC can support a variety of wireless protocols, and secondly due to important factors like its powerful processor, generous memory capacity, and wireless sensitivity,” says Mr. Song Lijun, R&D Director, Wayclouds. “Nordic’s SoftDevice and separation of application code are also key reasons we decided to use this solution. We developed our own application code and the Nordic SDK provided great development convenience.“In addition, the reference designs and technical support provided by Nordic are excellent, and the company responds to queries in a very timely manner.”
Together with the nRF52833, Nordic’s nRF52840 and nRF52820 multiprotocol SoCs also support Zigbee. The RF protocol plays a foundation role for wireless networks in IoT and Industrial IoT (IIoT) applications. Zigbee, together with Bluetooth LE, Thread, IEEE802.15.4 and 2.4GHz proprietary technologies, form the basis of Nordic’s proven short-range wireless product portfolio. Wayclouds’ AP300 and AP100 products leverage Nordic’s multiprotocol SoCs to offer engineers gateways ready to support Bluetooth LE and Zigbee IoT and IIoT applications.
