The IEEE802.15.4 USB Dongle from Integration

The hardware used for the first development tests will be an IEEE802.15.4 USB Dongle produced by Integration.

This device is well suited for the project because it provides the PHY and MAC layers, with a clearly defined IEEE802.15.4 MAC interface and easy to use IO operations. What's more, Integration provides the dongle drivers for several operating systems, including Linux. These drivers can be found unmodified on the download page. However, they will have to be modified to fit into the design of the ZigBuzz stack. Have a look in the design section to see where the drivers belong, and how they are interfaced with upper layers.

It is possible to purchase an evaluation kit from the Integration website. This kit contains two ZigBee USB dongles and a CD with some documentation and the drivers.

Integration has donated some USB dongle samples to the ZigBuzz project. This new version of the dongle is an HID USB device. Integration provides the driver as a userspace library, which is unfortunately closed source for the moment. But Integration might open it in the coming weeks (4th quarter 2007).