This question was posted on www.element-14.com:

There are a lot of wireless protocols that attempt to provide “simpler” stacks than (for example) Zigbee, for simpler situations.  But many of these are proprietary or semi-proprietary to a particular wireless product vendor (SimpliciTI from TI, ANT from Nordic, MiWI from Microchip, etc.)  Even when there are “free” software stacks available, they tend to be restirictred to use on the particular vendors’s products.

What simplified wireless stacks are defined that are specifically multi-vendor compatible (and what, if any, implementations exist)?  I’m particularly interested in which stacks might be portable across multiple frequency spectra, but that’s relatively secondary.  I’ve heard of Dash-7 and Ipv6/6LoWPAN, but neither seems to have much penetration … yet, and I’m not clear how the capabilities compare to the proprietary or “large” offerings?

Pinter Electronics Consultants’ answered:

Chris Pinter answers, “I do not think there are any free software stacks that can be ported to any device.   You have to remember that technology is intended to meet a need in the market place.  Free software stacks are provided in order to sell semiconductors.It someone where to develop a software stack that was portable to multiply devices they would need to invest 1000′s of hours to develop this and how old they get paid for this work?   So you will find there are only three types of software stacks.

1. Software that is developed for a family of semiconductor chips, with the intention to help sell semiconductors.

2. Proprietary software stack that if you could actually get a hold of would cost you money.

3. Software stack that is written by a student for a course or some other learning project.   These types of stacks are buggy, not sophisticated and worth basically nothing.

The reality is if you want to develop innovative technology you need to develop your software to meet your needs.

Hope this helps you understand the industry a little.    If you need help developing wireless technology I offer a number of services that will help you get to market quickly and cost affective.”

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