Ultra Low Power – Coin cell operation
In order to stay focused on delivering the best solution for ultra-low power wireless sensor networking, ANT has been intentionally engineered for simplicity and efficiency, and never hampered by the restriction of a standard organization process. ANT is free to develop practical applications efficiently and effectivety. In operation, this results in ultra-low power consumption, long battery life, minimal burden on system resources, simpler network designs and lower implementation costs.
Optimized code space and system cost
Every release of ANT has to go through a strict process of optimization to ensure that the code space is minimized. For example, the generic ANT code supporting eight channels can be well fit in a 16k code space and the heart rate monitor specific ANT code can be packed in a 2k memory.
There are variable serial port options available from ANT devices, so that lowest cost MCU can be used. As well, there is no requirement for precise timing synchronization to establish an ANT network, therefore a moderate crystal will suffice.
Flexible Network Topology
ANT supports from basic and peer to peer to complex practical mesh network topologies.
An ANT device can support multiple (up to 8) independent ANT channels. Any channel on a given node can operate as a slave or master. Relaying a message from one node to another becomes a breeze. No coordinator or network level master is required to accomplish complex topologies.
ANT can address up to 2^32 unique devices on a specified network key. For a given star network, if each link needs an independent ANT channel, the maximum number of devices is the channel capability of the ANT device used by the hub, which can be 8 if using AP2 or AT3 products. The number of devices on a star network can be largely increased to several hundred or even tens of thousands when utilizing a shared channel.
Unique tree topology using shared and auto shared channel
When a hub needs to poll data from multiple nodes periodically, shared channel makes it extremely easy. All the sensors with assigned addresses share the same ANT channel and the only sending data when its address is pinged by the hub. A sensor can join a tree network in an ad-hoc fashion in the case of an auto shared channel. An ANT shared channel is able to operate 65533 nodes.
Broadcast, Acknowledged and Burst message transaction
ANT allows three types of message transactions providing flexibility for different usage scenarios.
When newer data is of more importance and occasional loss of a message is not critical, broadcast messaging is a reasonable choice. Broadcast is a one-way communication from one node to another and the receiving node transmits no acknowledgement. This technique is suited to sensor applications and is field proven as the most economical method of operation.
Acknowledged messaging confirms receipt of packets. The transmitter is informed of success or failure, although there are no retransmissions. This technique is suited to control applications.
Burst messaging looks after the requirement of bulk data transmission and can be as fast as 20k bps of true data throughput. This is a multi-message transmission technique using the full data bandwidth and running to completion. The receiving node acknowledges receipt and informs of corrupted packages that the transmitter then resends. The packets are sequence numbered for traceability. This technique is suited to data block transfer where the integrity of the data is paramount.
Reliability and Dependability
ANT has several mechanisms to protect against interference including the unique adaptive channel synchronization technique, as well as frequency agility. On a given frequency, more than 100 ANT channels can co-exist harmoniously within the vicinity.
Low Latency
Latency is often a tradeoff between data rate and power consumption. In the case that the hub does not have power constraint, a scanning channel can be setup for latency critical applications, where zero latency can be achieved.