It's here! It's Now! The next big thingin wireless monitoring and control!

Author: Clive MaxfieldDate: 04/13/2010Posted on www.TechBites.comCommunity: Wireless

I just heard the news that California Eastern Laboratories (CEL) has purchased two million SNAP licenses from Synapse Wireless. SNAP is Synapse's wireless mesh network operating system that runs on CEL's MeshConnect 802.15.4 family of products.

This is, of course, fantastic news for the folks at Synapse, who are currently experiencing explosive growth. The full press release is given below, but first let me set the scene, because if you are interested in creating a wireless monitoring and control network of your own, but you aren't yet familiar with Synapse or SNAP ... then you REALLY NEED TO READ THIS!

Now, remember that I'm not an expert here – you can always talk to the folks at Synapse to get more details – but I'm confident that I understand enough to be dangerous.

Let's assume that you wish to build a wireless monitoring and control network. By this I mean that you want to have lots (tens, hundreds, or even thousands) of low-cost, lowpower wireless nodes.

Each node can be equipped with a variety of sensors that can monitor what's going on in the outside world. Each node also has the ability to control actuators that can affect the outside world (that is, turning something like a light or a motor or .... anything really... on or off, or controlling one or more analog outputs). Furthermore, each node has a wireless interface (hardware and software) that allows it to send and receive messages to and from the rest of the network.

What you really need is a mesh network, which means that any node can communicate with any other node within range. In turn, this means that messages from remote nodes can "hop" from one node to another until they reach their final destination. It also means that if a particular node catastrophically fails for some reason, the network as a whole can survive because messages will automatically be routed around the failed node.

Last but not least, you need some application running on a PC or workstation that will allow you to monitor and manage the network. Also, you will need some way to create your own user applications and to download them into the nodes forming the network.

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It's obvious that we want the wireless software stack (the software that handles the communications) to have a small "footprint" in terms of the memory it requires in the microcontroller and the processing resources it consumes. Sad to relate, however, even in the case of the well-known ZigBee protocol, you need at least 128 KB of embedded memory in the microcontroller ... and that's before you start adding your own applications. Furthermore, if you're not careful, the wireless stack will be so resource-intensive that you'll need to have two controllers – one to run the stack and another to run your applications. This is not a good thing when you're trying to keep costs and power consumption as low as possible.

Another concern is when it comes to actually creating user applications to run on the wireless nodes. With conventional networks the application creator requires a significant level of expertise in wireless technology coupled with extensive embedded programming skills (typically involving C/C++ and assembly language).

And once an application has been developed, the node on which it is to reside has to be physically transported to the developer's workstation for that application to be downloaded into the node... at which point your problems really start. This is because you are about to embark on a series of seemingly-endless iterations of extremely laborious edit-compile-embed-run-debug cycles using a variety of special hardware and software tools.

I could waffle on about this for hours, but I'll restrain myself to one final point, which is that if your network comprises a variety of different nodes based on different microcontrollers, then you will have to compile your applications separately for each processor type. Furthermore, if you wish to upgrade to a new wireless node based on a different microcontroller at some time in the future, once again you'll have to re-compile your applications.

The advantages of SNAP-based wireless networksI have to tell you before we start that I am very enthusiastic about the "stuff" coming out of Synapse (as if you couldn't guess [grin]). Their SNAP product isn’t so much a wireless stack or protocol as an operating system (OS). Having said this, the SNAP OS – which provides a full self-forming, self-healing mesh-network – is extremely lightweight in terms of memory requirements (only 45 KB), and processing requirements (it runs on low-cost 8-bit microcontrollers and up).

What you really need is a mesh network, which means that any node can communicate with any other node within range. In turn, this means that messages from remote nodes can "hop" from one node to another until they reach their n that will allow you to monitor and manage the network. Also, you will need some way to create your own user applications and to download them into the nodes forming the network.

Of particular interest is that you can create wireless applications to run on the SNAP-based network without having to have a high level of wireless knowledge or extensive embedded programming skills. Needless to say, this makes wireless technology accessible to a much broader range of users.

Synapse’s Portal is an interactive, wireless application development environment that runs on Windows or Linux. Using Portal, you can quickly and easily develop applications using a syntax-highlighted Python editor to create scripts that can be wirelessly downloaded into the SNAP nodes. (Python is really easy to learn – I talked to one guy who taught himself enough to start modifying existing applications just from looking at them in the time it took for his colleague to go down town and return with a book on the language!)

The combination of SNAP and Python is known as "SNAPpy". SNAPpy applications are automatically translated into what is known as "byte code" and are then downloaded over-the-air into the selected wireless network node(s).

The small memory footprint (45 KB) of the SNAP OS includes the SNAPpy (Python) Virtual Machine, which executes the byte codes forming the SNAPpy applications. This is extremely efficient in terms of the applications' memory footprint, because each byte code is equivalent to between 3 and 10 bytes of machine code. Furthermore, this provides extreme portability because the SNAPpy Virtual Machine provides a layer of abstraction that separates the applications from the physical hardware. This means that a SNAPpy application executable will immediately run on any processor without requiring any modification or re-compilation.

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Also of interest is the fact that SNAPpy applications are actually created as a collection of small, focused functions. The top-level application script essentially comprises a suite of function calls. This makes creating and updating applications fast and efficient. It also makes inter-node communications fast and efficient, because any node can issue a remote proce-dure call (RPC) to activate a function in any other node.

These RPCs are much smaller and simpler than the complex data packets that have to be constructed, transmitted, and decoded when using traditional network technologies. This unique approach also dramatically speeds the debugging and deployment of applications, because users can use Portal to send RPCs to activate individual functions in selected nodes. Also, a "sniffer" application can be used to monitor RPCs as they are passed around the network.

Furthermore, the combination of XML-RPC and the SNAP Connect extension to Portal allows your SNAP network to communicate its RPCs over a local area network (LAN) or over the entire Internet. And, of course, you can do things in the opposite direction; for example, using Portal to send RPC calls over the Internet into a remote SNAP wireless network. The possibilities are boundless!

Phew!

OK, now what follows is the stuff from the original press release:

Two Million SNAP licenses purchased by California Eastern Laboratories (CEL)

SNAP's sophistication, yet compact size, continues to provide more and more application developers with the ease and speed of product creation. There are currently over 900 registered SNAP developers.

CEL's MeshConnect devices are ideal for very low-power applications and are unique in the market with an embedded Voice CODEC: soon to be supported by SNAP. SNAP provides mesh routing with maximum battery life, easy connection to TCP/IP and delivers over-the-air programming. And SNAP's open source application code enables products to interop-erate within an industry as well as across multiple disciplines.

Through this purchase, SNAP will help many more CEL MeshConnect customers reach the market faster and realize faster time to revenue. Synapse and CEL are currently working on support for other popular CEL devices.

"The purchase of two million SNAP licenses by CEL further evidences the rapid adoption of SNAP as the 802.15.4 network operating system standard," said Wade Patterson, Synapse founder, president and CEO. "We are pleased to expand our relationship with CEL, a globally recognized RF/Wireless leader. We've brought our award winning products together to support designers in the creation of the most advanced, intelligent mesh networks, and we look forward to working with CEL to address new market challenges."

A high-level representation of the SNAP OS

"Synapse is an important partner, as we deliver market-leading range, voice processing, and low power requirements with our MeshConnect ICs and modules," said Rich Howell, CEL's director of business development. "We were the first company to embrace SNAP and the first to port SNAP to our MeshConnect products providing us with a significant market advantage. We made the purchase of two million licenses based on that success. SNAP on our MeshConnect products has provided our customers with a significant market advantage by enabling them to deploy autoforming 802.15.4 mesh networks faster and easier."

The Industry Recognizes Synapse and SNAPIn March 2010, the company announced its 2009 revenue doubled over 2008 due to major licensing agreements for its SNAP mesh network operating system. In addition to customer endorsements and revenue success, Synapse has received industry acknowledgement for its leadership in 802.15.4 networks. The SNAP network OS was named the 2009 Product of Year award from SmartGrid.TMCnet.com. Synapse also received the Embedded Systems Conference 2009 Best New Company and Best of Show awards by eg3.com and the 2009 North America Frost & Sullivan Award for Emerging Company of the Year.

Synapse SNAP Network Operating SystemSynapse's SNAP network operating system is an Internet-enabled, IEEE 802.15.4-based, instant-on, multi-hop, mesh network, software solution designed to cost-effectively run efficiently over a range of popular microprocessors and microcontrollers. SNAP has a very small memory footprint of only 45KB, thereby leaving more space for user applications. SNAP can support up to 16 million nodes in a single network. Since these are peer-to-peer, mesh networks, there is no single point of failure: any node can talk directly to any other node that is in range, and any node can talk indirectly to any other node via intermediate nodes – SNAP networks are self-healing. Users can interactively develop applications using a high-level English-like language called Python. No embedded programming experience is required. Synapse currently has more than 900 registered SNAP users.

The Synapse SNAP evaluation download is available today. For more information: www.synapse-wireless.com

CEL's comprehensive line of 802.15.4 / ZigBee MeshConnect family of products includes ICs, modules and software application packages. Designed for use in mesh, point-to-point, and point-to-multipoint systems, they provide a fully integrated, easy-to-use transceiver solution for IEEE 802.15.4 networks. CEL MeshConnect 802.15.4 / ZigBee modules and ICs are ideal for remote sensing, AMR/AMI, home and building automation and security applications.

The MeshConnect products with SNAP are available today. For more information, please visit www.cel.com

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More information: Synapse Wireless Inc.500 Discovery DriveHuntsville, AL 35806

www.synapse-wireless.comTel: (877) 982-7888Fax: (256) 852-7862

More information: California Eastern Laboratories (CEL)

4590 Patrick Henry DriveSanta Clara, CA 95054-1817

www.cel.comTel: (408) 919-2500Fax: (408) 988-0279

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