WSN-300: Building Large

Scale Smart City Networks

with Wi-SUN
 5 min What is Wi-SUN?
WSN-300:
Building Large 10 min Wi-SUN FAN Specification

Scale Smart City 5 min Mesh vs Long-Range Protocols Comparison

Networks with
Wi-SUN 10 min Silicon Labs Wi-SUN Solution

15 min Large Network Simulation

10 min Break

35 min Wi-SUN CoAP Hands-on Session

10 min Q&A

2
What is Wi-SUN?
Wi-SUN, Wireless Smart Ubiquitous Network

INITIAL PROBLEM WI-SUN ALLIANCE FAN SPECIFICATION CERTIFICATION

Proprietary Protocols Silicon Labs Promoter Member OPEN Standards Based PHY Certification
Lack Of Interoperability 46 Countries Interoperable FAN Profile Certification
Non-IP Based 300+ Members IPv6/6LoWPAN
6 Independent Test Houses
Limited Security 100+ Million Devices Deployed Mandatory Security
~50 FAN Certified Products
FSK, OFDM

4
Wi-SUN Solution Keywords

Back End | Head End | Control Center Services

 Border Router
WAN Backhaul
• Provides WAN connectivity
• Maintains source routing tables
• Node authentication and key mgmt.
• Disseminate PAN wide information such as
PAN B
broadcast schedules
 Router Nodes
PAN A PAN C • Upward and downward packet forwarding
within a PAN
• Services for relaying security and address
management protocols
 Leaf Nodes
• Discover and join a PAN
• Battery powered devices
Wi-SUN Field Area Network
• Send/receive IPv6 packets
Border Router
Router Node Leaf Node
Node

5
Wi-SUN FAN Specification
Wi-SUN PHY Layer

Application
 Specification:
• 802.15.4g
▸ PHY amendments to 802.15.4 for the Wireless Smart Ubiquitous
Transport & Network
Networks
(TCP/UDP | IPv6, 6LoWPAN, RPL)
▸ 802.15.4u - 865 – 867 MHz India band
Security ▸ 802.15.4v - 870–876 MHz, 915-921 MHz Europe bands,

Data Link ○ 902-928 MHz band in Mexico,

(802.15.4e) IEEE802.1
○ 902-907.5 MHz and 915-928 MHz bands in Brazil,
x
○ 915-928 MHz band in Australia and New Zealand
EAP-TLS

PHY
 Customers have the option to use modulations like
FSK | OFDM • FSK – ubiquitously deployed modulation in smart infrastructure
• OFDM – high throughput low latency PHY for next generation
products
Hardware  FAN 1.0 supports – FSK only
 FAN 1.1 supports – FSK, OFDM

Globally available large selection of 802.15.4g

based PHY modulations and data rates

7
Wi-SUN Data Link Layer

 Specification:
Two sub layers, an LLC sub-layer & a MAC sub-layer
Application
• LLC sub-layer
▸ Upper sub-layer, defines software processes that provide services
to network layer protocol
Transport & Network
▸ Allows access to different types of media defined by lower layers
(TCP/UDP | IPv6, 6LoWPAN, RPL)
(15.4, 802.11, 802.3 based media)

Security
• MAC Sub-layer
Data Link
IEEE802.1 ▸ Lower sub-layer, defines media access processes performed by the
(802.15.4e)
x hardware

EAP-TLS ▸ Frequency Hopping

○ The MAC sub-layer supports neighbor synchronized channel
PHY
hopping for both unicast and broadcast frame transmissions.
FSK | OFDM
○ Unicast and broadcast synchronization information is exchanged
between neighbors but there is no dependency upon PAN-wide
time synchronization.
Hardware ○ A fixed channel mode of operation is supported for situations in
which channel hopping is not desired
• 802.15.4e expands the MAC layer feature to fix MAC reliability,
unbounded latency, and multipath fading issues
802.15.4e MAC w ith frequency hopping mechanism • Supports Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance
and CSMA/CA

8
Wi-SUN Network & Transport Layers

 Specification:
• Uses Adaptation Layer 6LoWPAN between MAC &
Application Network layer
• IPv6 based network layer with unicast & multicast
• Uses RPL as the primary routing protocol
Transport & Network
(TCP/UDP | IPv6, 6LoWPAN, RPL) • Transport layer
▸ UDP (mandatory), TCP (optional)
Security

Data Link  Why 6LoWPAN?

(802.15.4e) IEEE802.1 • It defines IPv6 data encapsulation over a 15.4 low
x
power, memory constrained radio link
EAP-TLS
• It is needed to efficiently transmit IPv6 packets over low
PHY
FSK | OFDM
power and lossy networks (LLNs)
• 6LoWPAN provides
▸ header compression, fragmentation & reassembly, stateless
Hardware auto-configuration

 RPL (Ripple)
• Routing protocol for low power lossy networks
Ipv6/6lowpan network layer with UDP/TCP transport • RPL is optimized for large networks upstream data flow
protocols

9
Wi-SUN Security Layer

Application
 Access control is based upon
• Public key infrastructure [PKI]
• Modeled after Wi-Fi security framework (IEEE 802.1X and
Transport & Network IEEE802.11i)
(TCP/UDP | IPv6, 6LoWPAN, RPL)
 Each Wi-SUN device uses two X.509 certificates
Security • They are signed by an official Certification Authority (CA)

Data Link • The device certificate is used to authenticate the device to an

(802.15.4e) IEEE802.1 authentication server
x
• The CA root certificate is used by the device to verify the
EAP-TLS authentication server
PHY
FSK | OFDM  Authentication uses EAP-TLS protocol over EAPOL.
• Authentication results in Pairwise Master Key (PMK)
• A unique key shared between the border router and the device.

Hardware  Frame Security

• FAN nodes MUST implement AES-CCM 128b based Frame
Security

Public Key Infrastructure Framew ork With Authentication

Through Certificate -based Programming

10
Wi-SUN FAN 1.0 vs FAN 1.1

Border Router Node FAN 1.0 Border Router Node FAN 1.1 Sleepy Node

WI-SUN FAN 1.0 WI-SUN FAN 1.1

Deploy a mesh network with up to several Enable battery powered devices in the network
thousands of connected nodes (water/gas metering, smart city sensing…)
Native IPv6 communication through 6LoWPAN Additional regions supported (Japan, Brazil, EU…)
Based on FSK PHYs (up to 300 kbps) Introduction of OFDM PHYs (up to 2.4 Mbps)
Interoperable
Modulation and data rate negotiation between
Secure nodes to make use of the different PHYs

11
Mesh vs Long-Range
Protocols Comparison
Mesh Network vs Long-Range IoT Protocols

Base station Covered devices Base station Covered devices Mesh router

Isolated devices Base station RF range Isolated devices Base station RF range

LONG-RANGE IOT PROTOCOL ME S H N E TW ORK P R OTOCOL

Star topology (LoRa, Sigfox, NB-IoT…) Mesh topology (Wi-SUN/Thread/Bluetooth

Mesh…)
Base station able to cover several km² with a
data rate which can go below 1 Kbps Device range is around 700-800m in the lowest
data rate (50 Kbps FSK)
One isolated device requires a new base station
Due the higher data rate used, the battery life of
implantation the devices is extended for similar use cases

13
Mesh Network vs Long-Range IoT Protocols

Building Base station Covered devices

Building Base station Covered devices

Mesh router Isolated devices Base station RF range

Isolated devices Base station RF range

LONG-RANGE IOT PROTOCOL ME S H N E TW ORK P R OTOCOL

Star topology includes expensive base stations Mesh topology is more flexible
In an urban environment or RF challenging Mesh routers can be deployed on grid powered
layout, deploying enough base stations to devices (electric meters, streetlights…)
cover the entirety of an area is tedious.
Having a complete RF coverage of such an area
becomes possible

14
Silicon Labs Wi-SUN
Solution
Silicon Labs Wi-SUN FAN Solution

HARDWARE & PHY SIMPLICITY STUDIO 5 SAMPLE APPLICATION DOCUMENTATION

WSTK + EFR32FG12 Radio Wi-SUN stack provided as library Wi-SUN command-line interface Online Wi-SUN stack API documentation
Boards FreeRTOS or Micrium OS (using Wi-SUN POSIX UDP/TCP socket Readmes embedded inside Studio 5
CMSIS-RTOS V2)
CoAP-based Meter/Collector QSG181: Wi-SUN Quick-Start Guide
Certified Wi-SUN PHYs Radio Configurator
Empty/template project UG495: Wi-SUN Developer's Guide
Certified Wi-SUN FAN stack Energy Profiler AN1330: Wi-SUN Network Performance
Border Router demonstrations in
PTI/Network Analyzer binary format AN1332: Wi-SUN Network Configuration

16
Stack Architecture

 Protocol Suite (IPv6)

Meter/Collector Application
Sample • UDP (TCP optional)
Customer Application Application
Customer • 6LoWPAN Adaptation + Header Compression
Application POSIX
CoAP Application
Core Socket • DHCPv6 for IP address management
• Routing using RPL & Trickle
UDP TCP
Transport
Security • ICMPv6
OSI IPv6 Trickle- • Unicast and Multicast forwarding
ICMPv6 RPL DHCPv6
Model MPL IEEE802.
Network
1x  Security (802.1x)
802.11i
6LoWPAN EAP-TLS • EAP-TLS/PKI Authentication
FAN
Link • 802.11i Key Management
IEEE 802.15.4e MAC enhancements
• AEC-CCM 128b Encryption
IEEE 802.15.4g PHYs  MAC (802.15.4e)
Wi-SUN MR FSK
Physical Wi-SUN MR OFDM • Frequency Hopping
• CSMA-CA
RAIL
 PHY (802.15.4g)
Platform EFR32 Platform • FSK (xG12) modulations, data rates, and
regions
Silicon Labs Provided • OFDM Support coming with EFR32FG25
Customer Developed

17
Application Layer

Meter/Collector Application
Sample
Customer Application Application  Application layer is not part of the Wi-SUN
Customer
Application
Core
CoAP
POSIX
Socket
Application specification
• The technology is applicable to several
different verticals, challenging to have a
Transport UDP TCP
Security common app layer
OSI Trickle-
Model
IPv6 ICMPv6 RPL
MPL
DHCPv6
IEEE802.  Prevalent application layers
Network
1x  Smart metering
802.11i
6LoWPAN EAP-TLS
FAN  DLMS & Smart Energy 2.0
Link
IEEE 802.15.4e MAC enhancements  Street lighting

 uCIFI - uCIFI is defining a unified data model on

IEEE 802.15.4g PHYs
Wi-SUN MR FSK IoT networks and open-source sub-GHz mesh
Wi-SUN MR OFDM
Physical  Parking, smart city applications

RAIL  Other partners

 General purposes
Platform EFR32 Platform  CoAP, MQTT, LwM2M…

Silicon Labs Provided

Customer Developed

18
 Wi-SUN Stack Performance
Ping Latency Histogram Ping Latency at Different Hop Counts Constrained Wi-SUN Network Connection
1600 using Different Network Size Settings
4500
400
1400 4000
350

Ping Latency ( milliseconds)

1200 3500

Connection Time (minutes)

300
1000 3000
250
Number of Pings

2500
800 small
2000 200 small
medium
600 medium
1500 large 150
large
400 100
1000

200 500 50

0 0 0
0 200 400 600 800 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6
Ping Latency (milliseconds) Hops count to the Border Router Hop Count

POINT-TO-POINT LATENCY HOP IMPACT ON LATENCY CONNECTION TIME

• Wi-SUN frequency hopping • Latency scales with the number of • Wi-SUN Connection time is
scheme is the source of the latency hops travelled by the packet significant compared to home &
• Investigating performance • Network size settings have an consumer protocols
improvements impact on the ping latency • Allow the protocol to easily scale in
size while avoiding RF collisions

19
Certification Status

Japan
TUV
USA
Telmec Test
TUV Jemic PHYs Frequency / Region House
Taiwan
Allion FG12 – FSK 50kbps 902-928MHz North America & TUV USA
Brazil
India
TUV FG12 – FSK 150kbps 902-928MHz North America & TUV USA
Brazil
FG12 – FSK 100kbps 902-928MHz North America & TUV USA
Brazil
FG12 – FSK 50kbps* 863-875MHz Europe & India TUV India
FG12 – FSK 150kbps* 863-875MHz Europe & India TUV India
Test houses engaged with Silicon Labs FG12 – FSK 100kbps * 863-875MHz Europe & India TUV India
FG12 – FAN 1.0 Global Allion Labs
* ongoing

20
Large Network Simulation
Simulation Overview

Customer Application
Application
 Flexibility
• Large network simulation up to several thousands of
Transport UDP TCP
Security nodes
Trickle- • Can handle a wide variety of topologies
IPv6 ICMPv6 RPL DHCPv6
MPL IEEE802.
Network • Deterministic or random
1x
802.11i
OSI
6LoWPAN EAP-TLS  Key points
Model
FAN • Internal tool based on an open-source solution
Link IEEE 802.15.4e MAC enhancements
• Each node of the network is running a complete stack
instance
IEEE 802.15.4g PHYs
Wi-SUN MR FSK • Used for non-regression testing
Physical Wi-SUN MR OFDM
• Used to evaluate the stack, performance, and
RAIL generates statistics
• Extended debug capabilities
Platform EFR32 Platform
 Known limitations
• Low-level models not qualified
Simulation Engine
• Does not simulate processing time

Used as-is Stubbed Simulation

22
 Simulation Outputs
Connected Nodes Authentication Queue Dyn. Alloc vs Time
450 60 90
400 80
50
350 70

Authentications pending
300 40 60
connected nodes

250 50

KBytes
30
200
40
150
20 30
100
20
50 10
10
0
Time 0 0
Small Medium Large Time Time

NETWORK STACK HW & PLATFORM WIRESHARK PCAP

• Connection pace • Internal queues • Memory usage • Network packets

• Collisions • State machines • Radio status • Radio/stack information
transitions
• Channel occupancy • Power consumption • API requests

23
 Network Connection
SMALL MEDIUM LARGE
100 nodes
400 nodes

24
Network Connection
120 450

400
100
350

80 300

Connected nodes

Connected nodes
250
60
200

40 150

100
20
50

0 0
Time Time
Small Medium Large Small Medium Large

100 NODES 400 NODES

• “Small” network size setting recommended • “Medium” network size setting recommended
• Topology impacts connection times • Connection time inflexion point between
“small” and “medium”
• Better network performance with “medium”
configuration compared to “small”

25
Network Recovery

 Four islands linked by four bridges

1. Sent connection requests

2. Unoptimized connections

3. Optimized connections

4. Removed the bridge on the right

5. Fast network recovery

6. Optimized connections

 40 minutes to recover

26
Questions?
Wi-SUN CoAP Lab
Silicon Labs Delivers the Wi-SUN Foundation
Applications & ………
Device Distribution Municipal Cloud database
Management Grid intelligence Enterprise efficiency
automation infrastructure management
SECURITY

Stack FAN 1.0 FAN 1.1 FAN 2.0 ………

(L2-L4)

Line powered, Battery powered,

FSK modulations OFDM modulations

SECURITY

EFR32xG Series 1 EFR32xG Series 2

Hardware
EFR32xG12 EFR32xG13 EFR32xG21 EFR32xG22 Coming
1 MB / 256 kB 512 kB / 64 kB 1 MB / 96 kB 512 kB / 32 kB
2.4/sub-GHz 2.4/sub-GHz 2.4GHz 2.4GHz

CUSTOMER FOCUSED ON CREATING AND MONETIZING VALUE ON THE APPLICATION LAYER

29
Getting Started with Wi-SUN and xG12 SoCs

 Build your Wi-SUN mesh with the Wi-SUN starter kit

 Border router demo in binary format. Backhaul
connectivity possible using a Raspberry or a Linux
host
Content

3x BRD4001A WSTK main boards

3x BRD4170A 2400/868-915 MHz 19 dBm Radio Boards
SLWSTK6007A
1x debug adapter board + 1x flat cable
SMA Antenna

Other supported radio boards

Wi-SUN/MG12 SoC Starter Kit SLWRB4163A
SLWSTK6007A 2400/868 MHz 10 dBm Radio Boards
SLWRB4254A

SLWRB4164A
2400/915 MHz 19 dBm Radio Boards
SLWRB4253A

SLWRB4172A 2400/490 MHz 19 dBm Radio Boards

30
Wi-SUN SDK Collaterals

 Sample applications
 Available documentation
• Sample Application readmes
• AN1330
• AN1332
• UG495
• QSG181
• Stack documentation on docs.silabs.com

 Community
https://community.silabs.com/s/topic/0TO1M000000qHc6
WAE/wisun
 Support ticket
http://www.silabs.com/support

31
Flash and Start the Border Router

1. Run the standard border router demo

2. Discover the CLI commands
3. Configure the Wi-SUN PHY
4. Start the border router

32
Create and flash the CoAP Meter Project

1. Create the project

2. Compile and flash the project
3. Configure the node through the CLI
4. Wait for the connection to complete

33
Create and flash the CoAP Collector Project

1. Create the project

2. Compile and flash the project
3. Configure the node through the CLI
4. Wait for the connection to complete
5. Register the CoAP Meter
6. Look at the CoAP Collector retrieving sensor
data from the Meter

34
Use PTI and the Network Analyzer to trace the Wi-SUN Traffic

1. Start a capture on the 3 EFR32FG12s

2. Look at the Network Analyzer
3. Analyze the traffic and Wi-SUN headers

35
Export to Wireshark

1. Export the trace to Wireshark

2. Decrypt the traffic using the BR GAK key
3. Change CoAP default UDP port
4. Look at the decrypted traffic
5. Analyze it

36
  Wi-SUN FAN Technical Overview
 Tech Talk: Understand the Benefits of Wi-SUN for Long Range
Industrial Applications
Going further with Wi-SUN  QSG181: Silicon Labs Wi-SUN SDK Quick-Start Guide
 GSDK 3.2 release Wi-SUN  UG495: Silicon Labs Wi-SUN Developer’s Guide
sample applications
 AN1330: Silicon Labs Wi-SUN Mesh Network Performance
 Documentation (QSG, UG and
 AN1332: Silicon Labs Wi-SUN Network Setup and Configuration
ANs)
 Other Works With sessions Session ID Session Name
WSN-101 Introduction to Wi-SUN, It's markets and the Alliance
SMC -102 Smart City Network Management in the Cloud Using
Pelion
SMC-103 Why Wi-SUN is Ideal for Smart Street Lighting?
WSN-300 Building Large Scale Smart City Networks with Wi-
SUN
Thank You