Technical Overview of SmartMesh IP

Abstract

Smart Mesh IP is the latest protocol stack from the Linear Technology's Dust Networks group, who specialize in standards-based intelligent wireless sensor networking solutions. This paper presents a technical overview of this protocol stack, the System-on-Chip built around it, and the "ecosystem" to integrate a low-power mesh network in a larger system and the Internet. A descendant of long-standing protocols such as Wireless HART, the new IEEE802.15.4e Time slotted Channel Hopping standard delivers high reliability and ultra-low power. Combined with 6LoWPAN, the Smart Mesh IP protocol stack combines the industrial performance of IEEE802.15.4e with the ease-of-use of IPv6. After presenting the historical context of this technology, this paper discusses the different design choices which had to be made when designing this protocol stack, before covering typical use cases and real-world example deployments.