DJBainbridge
commented
10 years ago I agree Thingsquare RPL root is great for devices that connect directly to the web and is the way forward for Contiki.
I believe there is still a need for that dreaded border router for offline\hosted devices. I would like to put forward that the Contiki community looks at replacing SLIP with a standardized communication device class like the Ethernet Emulation Model (CDC-EEM) for USB and placing DEBUG on another UART.
Making use of Thingsquare RPL root a CDC-EEM device could appear in Linux/Win as a IPv4 or IPv6 device using standard device drives, nicely complementing Thingsquare Ethernet device. Maybe we should rename the border router with these mods to better reflect a Contiki device that connects to a host via USB.
Ethernet Emulation Model (CDC-EEM) is nicely documented here: http://www.usb.org/developers/devclass_docs/CDC_EEM10.pdf
As discussed here: http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=31642373
Contiki is supposed to make it easy to connect devices, but that dreaded border router has always made this near-impossible. With Thingsquare, we have taken a different approach that has turned out to work extremely well: we let the RPL root be a simple IPv6-to-IPv4 translator. This device has an Ethernet connection and just attaches to an IPv4 network and the Contiki devices now are able to reach the IPv4 network, directly. This approach is currently used in a number of commercial products and systems, and there is already hardware available: http://www.redwirellc.com/store/node/13
And, having seamless IPv4 access like this makes accessing a cloud backend really easy, as we've demonstrated with the Thingsquare kit: http://thingsquare.com/kit/