Introduction

The SimpleLink CC32XX family allows to add Wi-Fi and networking capabilities to low-cost embedded products without having prior Wi-Fi, RF or networking expertise. The CC32XX is an ideal solution for sensor and control applications such as home appliances, home automation and smart metering. The CC32XX has integrated a comprehensive TCP/IP network stack, Wi-Fi driver, security supplicant and high-performance applications ARM Cortex-M4 MCU with ultra-low memory footprint, all without compromising the capabilities and robustness of the final application.Refer to the CC32XX Peripheral User Guide for application MCU peripheral APIs.

Modules

The SimpleLink device provide a wide set of capabilities. These capabilities range from basic device management through wireless network configuration, standard BSD socket and much more. To make it simple, these capabilities were divided into modules by topic (Silo). Each topic is also divided into groups by the nature of its use (Classification).

Listed below are the different modules in the SimpleLink driver:

  1. Device: controls the behaviour of the CC3200 device (start/stop, events masking and obtaining specific device status)
  2. Wlan: controls the use of the WiFi WLAN module including:
    - Connection features, such as: profiles, policies, SmartConfig
    - Advanced WLAN features, such as: scans, rx filters and rx statistics collection
  3. Socket: controls standard client/server sockets programming options and capabilities
  4. Netapp: activates networking applications, such as: HTTP Server, DHCP Server, Ping, DNS and mDNS
  5. Netcfg: controls the configuration of the device addresses (i.e. IP and MAC addresses)
  6. FileSystem: provides file system capabilities to TI's CC32XX that can be used by both the CC32xx device and the user

Configuration

CC32XX SimpleLink driver is by default configured to support a wide range of application. User based on the application requirement can adjust these configurations. The guide takes you through this process step by step. Please notice that all modifications and porting adjustments of the driver should be made in the user.h header file only. Keep making any of the changes only in this file will ensure smoothly transaction to new versions of the driver at the future!

Modify user.h file

The first step is to modify user.h file that includes default configurations and adjustments

Select the capabilities set required for your application

Texas Instruments made a lot of efforts to build set of predefined capability sets that would fit most of the target application. It is recommended to try and choose one of this predefined capabilities set before going to build your own customized set. If you find compatible set you can skip the rest of this step.

The available sets are:

  1. SL_TINY - Compatible to be used on platforms with very limited resources. Provides the best in class foot print in terms of Code and Data consumption.
  2. SL_SMALL - Compatible to most common networking applications. Provide the most common APIs with decent balance between code size, data size, functionality and performances
  3. SL_FULL - Provide access to all SimpleLink functionalities

Memory management model

The SimpleLink driver support two memory models:

  1. Static (default)
  2. Dynamic

CC32XX default configuration is Static. In the dynamic model it will use the malloc and free defined by supported Operating System. If one wishes to define its own memory management, they can define these interfaces

Interface communication driver

CC32XX Host Driver implements SPI Communication Interface. The interface for this communication channel includes 4 simple access functions:

  1. open
  2. close
  3. read
  4. write

In CC32XX, SPI implementation uses DMA in order to increase the utilization of the communication channel.

Asynchronous event handlers routines

The SimpleLink device generate asynchronous events in several situations. These asynchronous events could be masked. In order to catch these events you have to provide handler routines. Please notice that if you not provide a handler routine and the event is received, the driver will drop this event without any indication of this drop.

OS adaptation

The SimpleLink driver could run on two kind of platforms:

  1. Non-Os / Single Threaded (default)
  2. Multi-Threaded

CC32XX SimpleLink Host Driver is ported on both Non-Os and Multi Threaded OS enviroment. The Host driver is made OS independent by implementing an OS Abstraction layer. Reference implementation for OS Abstraction is available for FreeRTOS and TI-RTOS.

If you choose to work in multi-threaded environment under different operating system you will have to provide some basic adaptation routines to allow the driver to protect access to resources for different threads (locking object) and to allow synchronization between threads (sync objects). In additional the driver support running without dedicated thread allocated solely to the simple link driver. If you choose to work in this mode, you should also supply a spawn method that will enable to run function on a temporary context.

License

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met: Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. Neither the name of Texas Instruments Incorporated nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.