q55 Golden Units
In June of 2017 the ZigBee Alliance announced the completion of its new Zigbee PRO 2017 network protocol standard. As part of that effort the Alliance nominates a set of platforms that implement the Zigbee PRO 2017 standard to be used as the reference as part of the Zigbee certification process.
Exegin provides 2 of the 3 platforms being used; the Q55m and the Q55s, to the Zigbee authorized test houses.
PRO 2017 Golden Units
The PRO 2017 Golden unit devices cover all of the features and functions of the Zigbee PRO 2017 test specification inclusive of
- Zigbee PRO Test Cases (basic) Chapter 10
- Additional Test Cases Based On Zigbee 2006 Compliant Platform Test Specification Chapter 11
- Additional Test Cases For Zigbee 3.0 (R21+) Chapter 12
- Additional Test Cases For R22+ Chapter 13
- Parent and End Device Test Cases R22+ Chapter 14
Covering 150 test cases, for which the Golden Units (GUs) function both as the device under test and the test harness depending on the details of the test case. The GUs act alternately as coordinators, routers and end devices depending on the roll that the device need play in the test cases.
The GUs, by function of being PR 2017 compliant implements both 2.4 GHz and sub-GHz support and if acting as a coordinator function in both bands simultaneously.
| A typical test case scenario could be as depicted; which is taken from the setup for test “TP/PRO/BV-29 PanID conflict detection – ZR”
The test verifies that when the 16-bit PANID is not a unique number there is a PANId Conflict. This test case is applicable to both Sub-GHz and 2.4 GHz interfaces. |
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The attendant test steps are:
- DUT ZR2 joins gZC1.
- Set gZC2 under target stack profile, gZC2 as Coordinator starts a PAN with a PANId different from the PANID of DUT ZC1.
- Assign the PanID of gZC2 to be the same as that of gZC1 by some means.
An alternate exmaple test case which uses both bands of the Q55s, the sub-GHz band and the 2.4 GHz band is
| A typical dual band test as taken from the setup for test “TP/R22/SGMB-04 ZMC DUT unit with 2.4 GHz ZED Golden unit and with Sub-GHz ZED Golden Unit change channel on Sub-GHz and Sub-GHz device rejoin”The test that the Multi-Band coordinator correctly forms a network and can communicate between end devices, switch Sub-GHz channel and end devices rejoin network, and buffer data successfully send between end devices after reforming network |  |
The attendant test steps are:
- gZMED1 – end device capable of joining DUT ZMC on Sub-GHz page 28 to page 31. End devices are RxOnWhenIdle=TRUE
- gZSR1 – end device capable of joining DUT ZMC on Sub-GHz page 28 to page 31
- gZED2 – end device capable of joining DUT ZMC on 2.4 GHz band. End devices are RxOnWhenIdle=TRUE
- gZR2 – end device capable of joining DUT ZMC on 2.4 GHz band
- DUT ZMC – a Multi Band coordinator capable of operating on the bands and associated channels of gZSR1, gZMED1, gZR2, gZED2
The Exegin Q55 GU devices handle the various GU roles for all of the tests for Zigbee PRO 2017.
benefits
- Based on Beaglebones these devices provide full Linux facility for device management. Ssh, scp for additions and updates. Command line shell scripting, TCP/IP connectivity through either USB or Ethernet etc.
- The Exegin PRO 2017 Zigbee stack provides a command line interface zbcli (Zigbee command line interface) that is accessible through a serial connection i.e. Linux and Windows are support as terminals.
- The command line (zbcli) can be scripted to perform dedicated tests.
- A set of scripts are provided that allow users to run each of the test cases for certification.
