Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi Fundamentals
Course description
The Wi-Fi Fundamentals course is an online, self-paced course that focuses on teaching the basics of Wi-Fi using Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF7002 companion IC. Through hands-on learning, participants will learn how to create a Wi-Fi prototype using the highly extensible and feature-right nRF Connect SDK.
Upon completion of the course, participants will have a thorough understanding of the Wi-Fi protocol and its layers, as well as knowledge of available APIs in the nRF Connect SDK, which is based on the Zephyr RTOS. Additionally, participants will have gained practical experience in configuring Wi-Fi connections and developing Wi-Fi applications.
What you'll learn
- Basic theory on Wi-Fi technology, including the new features of Wi-Fi 6
- Different methods for Wi-Fi provisioning and relevant API’s to establish a Wi-Fi connection
- Tools to measure the throughput in a Wi-Fi connection
- Connecting over Wi-Fi using the application layer protocols HTTP (HTTPS) and MQTT (MQTT/TLS)
- How to enable and configure power save modes available in Wi-Fi 6
- Apply what you have learned through hands-on exercises to build and secure Wi-Fi applications
Who should enroll in this course?
You should enroll in this course if you are interested in learning about the Wi-Fi protocol and want to build a Wi-Fi prototype using Nordic Semiconductor’s products. The course is aimed at embedded software engineers, firmware developers, or anyone interested in microcontrollers and embedded systems.
Estimated time
The estimated time needed to finish this course is about eight to ten hours in total. However, the actual time needed to finish the course will highly depend on your technical background and experience.
Learning Objectives
- Gain an introductory understanding of the Wi-Fi technology and briefly examine the basics of how Wi-Fi technology works, such as frequency bands, topologies, and commonly used terminology.
- Learn about the new features of Wi-Fi 6, such as Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Basic Service Set (BSS) coloring, beamforming, and Target Wake Time (TWT).
- Learn about the security features offered in Wi-Fi 6.
- Gain an understanding of Nordic’s Wi-Fi 6 offerings.
- Practice through a hands-on exercise how to provision your Nordic Wi-Fi 6 device via the nRF Wi-Fi Provisioner mobile app.
- Examine how a host MCU interacts with Nordic’s Wi-Fi companion chip.
- Learn about the different methods for Wi-Fi provisioning and the security options.
- Learn to use the Network Management API and necessary APIs available in the nRF Connect SDK.
- Practice through a hands-on exercise how to establish a Wi-Fi connection, both through command-line interface (CLI) commands and using APIs.
- Practice through a hands-on exercise how to add support for provisioning a Wi-Fi device via Bluetooth LE.
- Briefly examine the basics of network programming such as IP addresses, sockets, and transport layer protocols.
- Learn how to use the socket API.
- Practice through a hands-on exercise how to ping an echo server.
- Practice through a hands-on exercise how to create a socket and use it to connect to a server and measure the throughput of data downloaded from that server.
- Learn how to implement and use the MQTT protocol.
- Learn how to implement and use HTTP, both as an HTTP client and HTTP server.
- Gain an overview of the most suitable use cases for both MQTT and HTTP.
- Practice through hands-on exercises how to implement MQTT and HTTP and how to use TLS to secure the connection.
- Learn about beacon frames, Delivery Traffic Indication Message (DTIM), and message retrieval, both in broadcast/multicast and unicast cases.
- Understand the different power-saving modes available in legacy Wi-Fi.
- Learn about the TWT power save mode and relevant use cases.
- Examine the necessary API’s to enable and configure power save modes.
- Practice through hands-on exercises how to enable power save modes in your application and measure the power consumption.
Details
Prerequisites
- nRF Connect SDK Fundamentals course
- (Required) Lesson 1
- (Recommended) Lesson 2 – Lesson 8
- Basic knowledge of the C programming language.
- Some experience in developing software for embedded systems.
Hardware Requirements
- nRF7002 DK (stand-alone) or nRF7002 EK with the nRF5340 DK
- A smartphone or a tablet (Android 4.3 or later, or iOS version 9 or later)
- Special hardware requirements for Lesson 6
System Requirements
- A computer running Windows, macOS, or Linux
- An up-to-date web browser
