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SPIRIT1 RF Transceiver Overview Slide 13

CSMA/CA is a functionality provided by the SPIRIT1 that allows the device to handle conflict avoidance. This function is very important when there is multiple access to the network (i.e. mesh networks). Any time the SPIRIT1 is attempting to transmit, the CSMA/CA allows it to detect if another device is transmitting over the air. If this happens, SPIRIT1 will back off from the communication and wait until the channel is clear and available. This feature of the SPIRIT1 is important because otherwise the host microcontroller would have to handle this and would need to allocate resources and CPU load in order to handle the multiple access. The SPIRIT1 does it, and thus frees resources in the external microcontroller. Another key feature is the antenna diversity algorithm. The SPIRIT1 features a single pin that is able to control an external switch in order to select the best antenna for communication. To perform this, it is possible to program a threshold with the RSSI and the SPIRIT1 automatically will switch from one antenna to the other depending on the quality of the communication. Usually this function is handled directly from the host microcontroller; therefore the SPIRIT1 again frees resources in the host MCU.

PTM Published on: 2013-02-27