OpenThread Co-Processor

Overview

OpenThread Co-Processor allows building a Thread Border Router. The code in this sample is only the MCU target part of a complete Thread Border Router. The Co-Processor can act in two variants: Network Co-Processor (NCP) and Radio Co-Processor (RCP), see https://openthread.io/platforms/co-processor.

Additional required host-side tools (e.g. otbr-agent) to build a Thread Border Router can be obtained by following https://openthread.io/guides/border-router/build#set-up-the-border-router.

The preferred Co-Processor configuration of OpenThread is RCP now.

The source code for this sample application can be found at: samples/net/openthread/coprocessor.

Building and Running

Build the OpenThread NCP sample application like this:

west build -b <board to use> samples/net/openthread/coprocessor -- -DCONF_FILE=<config file to use>

Build the OpenThread NCP sample application which uses CDC ACM UART device:

west build -b nrf52840dk_nrf52840 samples/net/openthread/coprocessor -- -DDTC_OVERLAY_FILE=usb.overlay -DOVERLAY_CONFIG=overlay-usb-nrf-br.conf
west flash

Example building for the nrf52840dk_nrf52840 for RCP:

west build -b nrf52840dk_nrf52840 samples/net/openthread/coprocessor -- -DCONF_FILE="prj.conf overlay-rcp.conf"
west build -t run

There are configuration files for different boards and setups in the coprocessor directory:

  • prj.conf Generic NCP config file. Use this, if you want the NCP configuration.

  • overlay-rcp.conf

    RCP overlay file. Use this in combination with prj.conf, if you want the RCP configuration.

  • overlay-tri-n4m-br.conf This is an overlay for the dedicated Thread Border Router hardware https://www.tridonic.com/com/en/products/net4more-borderROUTER-PoE-Thread.asp. The board support is not part of the Zephyr repositories, but the product is based on NXP K64 and AT86RF233. This file can be used as an example for a development set-up based on development boards.