> Thanks again for the detailed response.  To give some context our
> powerline PHY isn't like any in the 802.15.4 spec and we are hoping to
> utilise just the MAC.  I need to check with the system guys but I think
> we can only multiplex multiple WPANs in time not frequency. We would
> also need the ability to register potentially quite a lot of WPANs to a
> PHY (think a single floor from a block of flats).

That sounds like a good case for the protocol abstraction I was thinking
about: split mac802154 into the PHY layer including monitor devices and
some upper layer protocol that handles the rest. True 802.15.4 could
configure suitable PHYs as needed, as could an implementation of your
protocol, but both need not be the same code. They could potentially share
a lot though, especially if you use the 802.15.4 frame format - and you
can already use that apart from mac802154 since my header patchset.

> I can see that we are
> going to have to worry about bandwidth usage in this case but on the
> plus side we don't have to worry about meshing and all the protocol
> traffic that is associated with it as much :)

That depends, if you have all transceivers in the same broadcast domain
and all transceivers can directly see all others, you don't actually need
bridging. You'll only need an efficient filter, which is what all 802.15.4
PHYs I know implement for one PAN ID - you'd need to filter for 65535 of
them instead of one. Bloom filters in hardware? Or maybe just relax the
ACK timing, if you want to use those, or drop them entirely. If you're not
using the MAC as is, you may as well use only the required subset you can
get away with.

> Again thanks for the info, I have a lot to think about.

I try. ;) Do consider all info to be without warranty though. Especially
bridging is something I never would've thought about, let alone
implemented it.


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