
SmartRF
CC2420
In
CC2420
, the preamble length and SFD is
configurable. The default values are
compliant with [1]. Changing these values
will make the system non-compliant to
IEEE 802.15.4.
A synchronisation header is always
transmitted first in all transmit modes.
The preamble sequence length can be set
by
MDMCTRL0.PREAMBLE_LENGTH
, while
the SFD is programmed in the
SYNCWORD
register.
SYNCWORD
is 2 bytes long, which
gives the user some extra flexibility as
described below. Figure 17 shows how the
CC2420
synchronisation header relates to
the IEEE 802.15.4 specification.
The programmable preamble length only
applies to transmission, it does not affect
receive mode. The preamble length
should not be set shorter than the default
value. Note that 2 of the 8 zero-symbols in
the preamble sequence required by [1] are
included in the
SYNCWORD
register so that
the
CC2420
preamble sequence is only 6
symbols long for compliance with [1]. Two
additional zero symbols in
SYNCWORD
make
CC2420
compliant with [1].
In reception,
CC2420
synchronises to
received zero-symbols and searches for
the SFD sequence defined by the
SYNCWORD
register. The least significant
symbols in
SYNCWORD
set to 0xF will be
ignored, while symbols different from 0xF
will be required for synchronisation. The
default setting of 0xA70F thereby requires
one
additional
synchronisation. This will reduce the
number of false frames detected due to
noise.
zero-symbol
for
In receive mode
CC2420
uses the
preamble
sequence
synchronisation and frequency offset
adjustments. The SFD is used for byte
synchronisation, and is not part of the data
stored in the receive buffer (RXFIFO).
for
symbol
0
7
A
IEEE 802.15.4
Preamble
SFD
CC2420
2·(
PREAMBLE_LENGTH
+ 1) zero symbols
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
SW0
SW0 =
SYNCWORD[3:0]
SW1 =
SYNCWORD[7:4]
SW2 =
SYNCWORD[11:8]
SW3 =
SYNCWORD[15:12]
SW1
SW2
SW3
if different from 'F', else '0'
if different from 'F', else '0'
if different from 'F', else '0'
if different from 'F', else '0'
Synchronisation Header
Figure 17. Transmitted Synchronisation Header
Length field
The frame length field shown in Figure 16
defines the number of bytes in the MPDU.
Note that the length field does not include
the length field itself. It does however
include
the
FCS
Sequence), even if this is inserted
automatically by
CC2420
hardware. It also
includes the MIC if authentication is used.
(Frame
Check
The length field is 7 bits and has a
maximum value of 127. The most
significant bit in the length field is reserved
[1], and should be set to zero.
CC2420
uses the length field both for
transmission and reception, so this field
must always be included. In transmit
mode, the length field is used for
underflow detection, as described in the
FIFO access section on page 29.
MAC protocol data unit
The FCF, data sequence number and
address information follows the length field
Chipcon AS
SmartRF
CC2420 Preliminary Datasheet (rev 1.2), 2004-06-09
Page 35 of 87