IEEE 802.15.4 Support: RAIL vs Connect#

The Connect stack relies on hardware-accelerated IEEE 802.15.4 functionality implemented by the RAIL library, and this interface is also available to application code. However, there are some differences in the developer experience (and application solution space) between Connect-based and "bare metal" RAIL-based 802.15.4 applications.

In most cases, using Connect for building an IEEE 802.15.4 application is easier than implementing the same feature set based on the RAIL library directly. Connect already provides the following features:

  • Association procedure to connect nodes to a network

  • CSMA/CA to minimize collision and enable higher throughput / less lost packets

  • Security (authentication, encryption, and replay attack protection)

  • Frame assembly (the customer only needs to provide the message payload)

As these features are not implemented in RAIL, it is the customer’s responsibility to implement them (if desired) when not using Connect.

Cases when the RAIL library may be preferred over the Connect stack for IEEE 802.15.4-based communication are those where the device lacks sufficient code memory for the Connect stack, or where a non-standard implementation is necessary.

The RAIL library IEEE 802.15.4 API is available at IEEE 802.15.4 for reference.