Multi-Network Support#

Multi-network and multi-PAN features allow a device to operate on two Zigbee networks using the same radio. These Zigbee networks may have different security settings or network parameters, such as short ID, PAN ID, extended PAN ID, or radio power. The only parameter that stays the same on all networks is the node's EUI64. While the multi-network feature allows the two networks to be on different radio channels, the multi-PAN feature requires that this setting matches.

The EmberZNet SDK greatly simplifies network context maintenance in application callbacks and network specific stack status handlers. For more details on this and API descriptions, see AN724: Designing for Multiple Networks on a Single Zigbee Chip. This section discusses how the feature may be enabled and configured on a sample application.

Configuration#

Multi-network / Multi-PAN functionality may be enabled by editing the Zigbee Device Config component. These are the high-level steps:

1. Find and click Configure on “Zigbee Device Config” component.

2. Enable the secondary network.

3. Select the device type and network security for the secondary network.

4. Select the default network. Default is set to primary. You can set this to secondary, if required.

5. Select the Tx power mode.

6. Make cluster and endpoint selections for each network using Zigbee Cluster Configurator.

By default, all endpoints are assigned to a network named “Primary” whose network index shows as 0. To assign endpoints to the secondary network, you will need to set the network index to the value 1. Note that each endpoint belongs to one network and its value must be unique across networks. Each network may contain multiple endpoints.