How to prevent an XBee rejoining the same network after NR?

XBee & XBee Gateway XBee - Zigbee
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1

In our application, we can have multiple equivalent but overlapping networks. As it is okay for a device to join any of these networks, we have the same PAN ID, security etc. Currently the joining device picks the router with the best/strongest response. It is possible that a network reaches the capacity of the coordinator to manage the traffic and thus needs to reject devices that may have otherwise successfully joined at a ZigBee level.

In the XBee3 user manual under ‘Manage multiple Zigbee networks’ -> ‘Application messaging framework’, there is a brief discussion about handling this type of situation using ‘application messaging’. That approach would seem a good fit for us.

My question is if an XBee3 is forced to leave the network (NR) as a result of such application messaging, how can I be sure it will try to rejoin other available networks before attempting to rejoin the one it was originally on? Ideally it would be possible to actually prevent (at least for a period of time) a successful join to that network?

Thanks, Ross

2

The approach I use is to first issue an Active Scan (AS), and then set all relevant parameters (ID, SC, ZS) for the target network. This way you have complete control over the network you’ll join.

3

Thanks for penning a response… I’d almost forgotten about this post (although the problem it addresses remains). I like your suggestion which is clean, and doesn’t feel like a hack. It’s also the only viable option I’ve seen so far. I’ll give some thought as to how it might be applied in our application. Thanks again.