Alpha Micro says that the GainSpan line-up of Wi-Fi wireless modules are now being shipped with a concurrent mode feature.
Suited to provisioning wireless connectivity for a broad range of IoT applications, the GS2000-based modules can now operate currently in Wi-Fi station (infrastructure) and access point (AP) modes. This feature allows simultaneous communication using both modes from a single module rather than having to have two radios. This approach makes it a lot easier to provision, use, maintain and upgrade IoT wireless links.
Equipped with a dual core architecture and hardware crypto engines providing WPA2-PSK security the GS2000 chip can support up to 64 client connections in the AP mode.
Previously, switching between the different modes would terminate one mode for the other without any indication that the connection had timing out.
Concurrent mode allows service technicians, for example, to be able to upgrade firmware on a device without the need to impact the normal operation in station mode. This is ideal for use in many IoT deployments. One use case might be where interruption of sending sensor data might trigger an error report or instigate an appliance call-out while an engineer is upgrading the device firmware. Using concurrent mode prevents this happening.