August 19, 2025 • 13 mins
Exploring NXP's RW612: The Future of Wireless Interoperability
Join co-hosts Kyle Dando and Bridgette Stone on the EdgeVerse Techcast as they delve into NXP's cutting-edge wireless solutions with Sanjay Subbarao. Discover how NXP is making strides in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, Thread, and the Matter ecosystem to simplify wireless connectivity for developers. Learn about the RW612, a tri-radio chip enabling seamless integration across different wireless protocols, and the innovative ways NXP is addressing interoperability challenges.
Tune in for an insightful discussion on the future of smart homes, industrial applications, and beyond!
Resources:
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:41 Listener Appreciation and Feedback
01:07 Today's Topic: Wireless Connectivity
01:25 Guest Introduction: Sanjay Subbarao
02:35 NXP's Wireless Connectivity Portfolio
04:37 ZigBee and RW612
06:22 Interoperability in Wireless Technology
08:33 NXP's RW612 and Customer Support
09:37 Future Challenges and Rewards in Wireless
12:13 Conclusion and Farewell
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
Hello there, and thanks forchoosing to listen to this
episode of the EdgeVerse Techcast.
This is a great place for you tohear interesting updates on all
NXP software tools and enablement,specifically tailored for our Application
Processors and Microcontrollers.
I'm one of the co-hosts, Kyle Dando.
Bridgette Stone, how are you doingover there in the great state of Utah?
(00:32):
Hey Kyle, I'm doing great.
Weather's awesome, enjoying Summer anddoing even better after looking at the
response we had from our 25th episode.
That's right.
We had a lot of listeners reachout, and leave a few comments.
That was very much appreciated anda special shout out to Aaron Toga,
who was the first to comment andwill be getting an NXP swag item.
(00:55):
Thanks again to Aaron forlistening and your nice comment.
Yeah, thanks to all the listeners.
We put a lot of effort intothis and so it was nice that
people gave us some feedback.
So what are we doing today, Bridgette?
Today we're going from Wi-Fi toBluetooth, ZigBee and Thread, all of
these wireless connectivity standards.
It's the thing that we find inour Smart Homes and Factories.
(01:17):
And today we're gonna unpack itall for you and show you what NXP
is doing to make it way easier fordevelopers to use that technology.
To help us dig in, Bridgette,we've invited Sanjay Subbarao.
Now when Sanjay's not deep in SDKsand wireless protocols, I hear he's
working on his pilot's license.
(01:38):
That's pretty impressive, Sanjay.
So welcome to the show.
Hey, Kyle.
Hey Bridgette.
Yeah, I mean what's not toget excited about flying.
Sometimes when you look from upabove it almost looks like the land,
the buildings and the areas aroundme, looks more like a PCB board.
So I guess you can't gettoo far away from work.
(01:59):
So yeah, there is that.
I also feel like there's a lotof parallels between Aviation and
the Wireless Connectivity piece.
Because both of them rely on precision,reliability and you want to make sure
everything functions and communicatesseamlessly so that you can feel like
the equipment is doing and followingthe commands as you are guiding it.
(02:24):
And seeing those connectionschange lives on a day-to-day basis.
So what, what else bettergift could you be doing?
And I'm glad I am doing that here at NXP.
So Sanjay, let's start at the beginning.
When you meet someone who askswhat you do, how do you break
it down in under two minutes.
What does NXP's wirelessconnectivity portfolio look
(02:45):
like and how do you support it?
I start off by saying I workin the applications and the
SDK engineering team at NXP.
I work mainly focusing on the connectivityportfolio, which encompasses Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth, Thread, and ZigBee.
These technologies I've realizedhave the foundation for connected
(03:08):
devices in Consumer, Industrial,Automotive and the medical domains too.
My role is to make these technologiesaccessible and easy for developers to use.
That means building and optimizingtheir SDKs, tools, and then making it
easier to access through documentation.
(03:30):
So the customers can integrate thewireless chips quickly and reliably.
We also collaborate with the otherengineering R&D teams and partners to
troubleshoot some of the problems thatthey face and make sure the solutions
that we have are ready for production.
Ultimately, I feel like the goal is totake the friction out of the development
(03:52):
process and help customers bringwireless products to the market faster.
That's awesome, Sanjay.
and, It's so rewarding when you canget those customers to start building
their products and they thank you forhelping them avoid those pitfalls,
and helping them understand maybesome critical areas where it's not
as intuitive as they might expect.
So, yeah, it's a super rewardingjob, but it does take a ton of
(04:15):
work and I know you're working bothinternally and with customers to make
sure we get more of those wirelesssolutions into customer's hands.
Alright, Sanjay, here'sanother question for you.
You visit so many customers developingproducts that require wireless solutions.
Can you share an application that ourlisteners might not realize is really
popular for NXP's wireless technology?
(04:37):
Yeah, one thing that I can think of isZigBee, and the up-and-coming RW612,
which supports the 802.15.4 technology.
Our engineering teams enabled it tooperate as a ZigBee device, which means
it can be used in the existing ZigBeenetworks, like Smart Home, Lighting,
(05:01):
Sensors or even Home Automation systems.
Okay.
ZigBee.
I have a few ZigBee devices at my home.
I have a Phillips Hue light bulb.
I have some water sensors hookedup to SmartThings through ZigBee.
I have some IKEA light bulbs.
I know those are ZigBee based.
Sanjay, how can this RW612 supporthelp ZigBee devices in the future?
(05:22):
So the idea is that you have theseexisting ZigBee investments which
need to be made more compatible whileadopting to the Matter standards.
Also you want to avoid the ripand replace kind upgrades that's
happening in some of the areas today.
(05:43):
Also from a system engineering standpointthis involves protocol translation
which is seamless and compliant.
And we want to manage the Dynamic EndpointMapping, which involves integrating
the existing nodes and adding the newnodes to the same network as well.
(06:03):
I like how you tied Matteradoption to why it matters.
I'm sure we've heard this joke beforeand I know that the RW612 is the
perfect solution for customers that havemultiple protocols and radios to support.
So thank you for sharing that.
And I wanna get just alittle more technical.
I know off mic, you mentioned that you'reheavily involved in interoperability.
(06:27):
For those who don't live and breathewireless every day like you, what exactly
is interop and why is it so critical?
Uh, that's a great question and Ifeel like one of these conversations
is very important because people, Ifeel like are feeling that pain of
not meeting those interoperabilitystandards and here's why it's hard.
(06:50):
Because some of the devices fromdifferent vendors actually have their own
ways of communicating with each other.
The specification at times isn't veryclear on the implementation and there
are some areas where there is moreleeway in terms of what people can
implement and how they can implement it.
(07:11):
It is critical in the real world because,no one has a home or a factory that
runs just on one brand and everybodyhas to work together seamlessly.
That means at NXP, tacklingchallenges like tri-radio coexistence
with Wi-Fi, BLE, and 802.15.4,all running side-by-side without
(07:33):
interfering with each other.
It also means handling the complexity ofthe Matter ecosystem, which spans multiple
transports, like Wi-Fi and Thread.
Supporting that also requires vigoroustesting, compliance and certification.
So customers who are using our productscan trust their devices will work
(07:53):
reliably across platforms as well.
Okay, I get it.
In Matter there are multipleways devices interact.
The interoperability is the processthat allows everyone to be heard
and more importantly, prevent onedevice who really likes to talk
from robbing all the podcast time.
Oh, wait, wait.
Sorry, I meant "robthe network bandwidth".
(08:15):
That's, that's very clever, Bridgette.
Very clever.
I don't know who you were talking about.
Okay, Sanjay, let's not lether get the last laugh That
was a really good explanation.
I think all our listeners have a betterunderstanding of interoperability.
Can you dive a little deeperinto what NXP has done to set
themselves apart from others?
With the RW612, they have a greattri-radio part, but how have they
(08:37):
taken that part and really stepped itup with respect to interoperability?
Yeah, that's a great question.
One of the things that NXP is settingthemselves apart with is the RW612,
like you mentioned, which is a MatterBorder Router combined in one chip.
This allows customers to build theMatter ecosystem using just that chip.
(09:02):
It's a low cost development board.
It simplifies design and reducesthe bill of materials, which
customers really appreciate.
Okay.
So how have you seen customersgetting started with the RW612?
What's the most popular way?
We've made it easierfor them to get started.
The FRDM-RW612 board, which isavailable at a low cost value of $30.
(09:25):
We have partner modules as wellwith uBlox, Murata, and CEL,
which are all plug-and-play.
So customers can prototype andvalidate quickly, which shortens
their path to production.
So Sanjay, let's wrap up by looking ahead.
Where do you see the biggestchallenges in wireless and
where's the most exciting reward?
I, I feel like you, you wannastart with the positives first?
(09:48):
So I wanna talk about the biggest reward.
Yeah, let's keep it positive.
So like the biggest rewardis Customer Empowerment.
When customers can deploy a solution,which is secure, interoperable,
and uses the NXP SDKs and thereference designs, and they don't
have to deal with the friction.
That's a huge win for us.
(10:09):
It also helps reduce our work,and helps them bring their
products quicker into the market.
It increases their confidence inthe wireless deployments as well.
The other piece is theIndustry Standards bit.
Wherein we are getting involved inthe evolution of Matter and Aliro.
(10:31):
As the standards keep growing andwe are contributing to that adoption
through the robust platforms likeRW612 which positions NXP as a leader
in shaping the future of connectivity.
Wow.
Lots of future benefits andexcitement for customers.
Okay, so now share with us the other side.
What are the inevitable challenges?
(10:54):
Well, I mean, everythinghas its own flip-side.
One thing that sort of comes to my mindis the Scalability bit and Certification.
So as the ecosystems grow, youfeel like there needs a lot more
testing and that needs to scale.
We need to work oncompliance and certification.
Which means that the SystemsEngineering team must ensure that
(11:14):
the devices not only work reliablyacross vendors, but partners as well.
The other piece that I wanted totouch on is when I spoke about the
positive of the customer enablementbit and the ecosystem support.
One slight negative would be we'llhave to work on supporting multiple
customers, through the SDKs, thereference designs and the customer
(11:39):
integrations that come with it.
This is a bit of a challengefor us because we see that the
use cases have diversified andthey diversify very quickly.
The teams will need to anticipate thoseneeds across Smart Home, Industrial,
Automotive and Medical domains as well.
You are right Sanjay.
It's super complex andthose are huge challenges.
(12:01):
I think everybody's working towards it.
You talked about Matter and Aliro.
I think those are ways that we'retrying to get everybody to work
together to make it easier to deliverthese next generation Smart Devices.
But let's wrap up the episode.
We had a great time with youSanjay, talking about the
NXP wireless connectivity.
We talked about all of thestandards that you're involved in.
(12:23):
You're out there supporting ourcustomers with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi,
802.15.4, more specifically with ZigBee.
Supporting protocols and applicationslike Matter, Thread, Aliro, Bluetooth,
Wi-Fi, all those things that are addingcomplexity into the customer's products.
What you talked about and whatyou did a great job explaining
(12:45):
was the interoperability.
It's not just sticking threeradios on a chip, or in a product.
It's how do those radios, how do thoseprotocols, how does all that interact.
And how does everybody, as Bridgettesay, get a fair voice and don't let
one person rob all of the bandwidth.
So great job Sanjay on helpingour listeners understand.
(13:07):
The RW612 sounds incredible, and I thinkit's gonna be great for our listeners.
What a great episode.
Thanks Sanjay for sharingso much information about
the wireless space today.
We appreciate you being here.
Thank you for inviting me.
I didn't realize the time go by and,uh, I always like to talk about wireless
(13:27):
and everything that comes with it.
Well to our listeners, if youenjoyed this conversation, don't
forget to subscribe and followalong so you never miss an episode.
And if there's a topic you'd lovefor us to cover, let us know.
And until next time, keep innovating,go check out some cool wireless
stuff, and we'll catch you onthe next EdgeVerse Techcast.
Hello there, and thanks forchoosing to listen to this
episode of the EdgeVerse Techcast.
This is a great place for you tohear interesting updates on all
NXP software tools and enablement,specifically tailored for our Application
Processors and Microcontrollers.
I'm one of the co-hosts, Kyle Dando.
Bridgette Stone, how are you doingover there in the great state of Utah?
(00:32):
Hey Kyle, I'm doing great.
Weather's awesome, enjoying Summer anddoing even better after looking at the
response we had from our 25th episode.
That's right.
We had a lot of listeners reachout, and leave a few comments.
That was very much appreciated anda special shout out to Aaron Toga,
who was the first to comment andwill be getting an NXP swag item.
(00:55):
Thanks again to Aaron forlistening and your nice comment.
Yeah, thanks to all the listeners.
We put a lot of effort intothis and so it was nice that
people gave us some feedback.
So what are we doing today, Bridgette?
Today we're going from Wi-Fi toBluetooth, ZigBee and Thread, all of
these wireless connectivity standards.
It's the thing that we find inour Smart Homes and Factories.
(01:17):
And today we're gonna unpack itall for you and show you what NXP
is doing to make it way easier fordevelopers to use that technology.
To help us dig in, Bridgette,we've invited Sanjay Subbarao.
Now when Sanjay's not deep in SDKsand wireless protocols, I hear he's
working on his pilot's license.
(01:38):
That's pretty impressive, Sanjay.
So welcome to the show.
Hey, Kyle.
Hey Bridgette.
Yeah, I mean what's not toget excited about flying.
Sometimes when you look from upabove it almost looks like the land,
the buildings and the areas aroundme, looks more like a PCB board.
So I guess you can't gettoo far away from work.
(01:59):
So yeah, there is that.
I also feel like there's a lotof parallels between Aviation and
the Wireless Connectivity piece.
Because both of them rely on precision,reliability and you want to make sure
everything functions and communicatesseamlessly so that you can feel like
the equipment is doing and followingthe commands as you are guiding it.
(02:24):
And seeing those connectionschange lives on a day-to-day basis.
So what, what else bettergift could you be doing?
And I'm glad I am doing that here at NXP.
So Sanjay, let's start at the beginning.
When you meet someone who askswhat you do, how do you break
it down in under two minutes.
What does NXP's wirelessconnectivity portfolio look
(02:45):
like and how do you support it?
I start off by saying I workin the applications and the
SDK engineering team at NXP.
I work mainly focusing on the connectivityportfolio, which encompasses Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth, Thread, and ZigBee.
These technologies I've realizedhave the foundation for connected
(03:08):
devices in Consumer, Industrial,Automotive and the medical domains too.
My role is to make these technologiesaccessible and easy for developers to use.
That means building and optimizingtheir SDKs, tools, and then making it
easier to access through documentation.
(03:30):
So the customers can integrate thewireless chips quickly and reliably.
We also collaborate with the otherengineering R&D teams and partners to
troubleshoot some of the problems thatthey face and make sure the solutions
that we have are ready for production.
Ultimately, I feel like the goal is totake the friction out of the development
(03:52):
process and help customers bringwireless products to the market faster.
That's awesome, Sanjay.
and, It's so rewarding when you canget those customers to start building
their products and they thank you forhelping them avoid those pitfalls,
and helping them understand maybesome critical areas where it's not
as intuitive as they might expect.
So, yeah, it's a super rewardingjob, but it does take a ton of
(04:15):
work and I know you're working bothinternally and with customers to make
sure we get more of those wirelesssolutions into customer's hands.
Alright, Sanjay, here'sanother question for you.
You visit so many customers developingproducts that require wireless solutions.
Can you share an application that ourlisteners might not realize is really
popular for NXP's wireless technology?
(04:37):
Yeah, one thing that I can think of isZigBee, and the up-and-coming RW612,
which supports the 802.15.4 technology.
Our engineering teams enabled it tooperate as a ZigBee device, which means
it can be used in the existing ZigBeenetworks, like Smart Home, Lighting,
(05:01):
Sensors or even Home Automation systems.
Okay.
ZigBee.
I have a few ZigBee devices at my home.
I have a Phillips Hue light bulb.
I have some water sensors hookedup to SmartThings through ZigBee.
I have some IKEA light bulbs.
I know those are ZigBee based.
Sanjay, how can this RW612 supporthelp ZigBee devices in the future?
(05:22):
So the idea is that you have theseexisting ZigBee investments which
need to be made more compatible whileadopting to the Matter standards.
Also you want to avoid the ripand replace kind upgrades that's
happening in some of the areas today.
(05:43):
Also from a system engineering standpointthis involves protocol translation
which is seamless and compliant.
And we want to manage the Dynamic EndpointMapping, which involves integrating
the existing nodes and adding the newnodes to the same network as well.
(06:03):
I like how you tied Matteradoption to why it matters.
I'm sure we've heard this joke beforeand I know that the RW612 is the
perfect solution for customers that havemultiple protocols and radios to support.
So thank you for sharing that.
And I wanna get just alittle more technical.
I know off mic, you mentioned that you'reheavily involved in interoperability.
(06:27):
For those who don't live and breathewireless every day like you, what exactly
is interop and why is it so critical?
Uh, that's a great question and Ifeel like one of these conversations
is very important because people, Ifeel like are feeling that pain of
not meeting those interoperabilitystandards and here's why it's hard.
(06:50):
Because some of the devices fromdifferent vendors actually have their own
ways of communicating with each other.
The specification at times isn't veryclear on the implementation and there
are some areas where there is moreleeway in terms of what people can
implement and how they can implement it.
(07:11):
It is critical in the real world because,no one has a home or a factory that
runs just on one brand and everybodyhas to work together seamlessly.
That means at NXP, tacklingchallenges like tri-radio coexistence
with Wi-Fi, BLE, and 802.15.4,all running side-by-side without
(07:33):
interfering with each other.
It also means handling the complexity ofthe Matter ecosystem, which spans multiple
transports, like Wi-Fi and Thread.
Supporting that also requires vigoroustesting, compliance and certification.
So customers who are using our productscan trust their devices will work
(07:53):
reliably across platforms as well.
Okay, I get it.
In Matter there are multipleways devices interact.
The interoperability is the processthat allows everyone to be heard
and more importantly, prevent onedevice who really likes to talk
from robbing all the podcast time.
Oh, wait, wait.
Sorry, I meant "robthe network bandwidth".
(08:15):
That's, that's very clever, Bridgette.
Very clever.
I don't know who you were talking about.
Okay, Sanjay, let's not lether get the last laugh That
was a really good explanation.
I think all our listeners have a betterunderstanding of interoperability.
Can you dive a little deeperinto what NXP has done to set
themselves apart from others?
With the RW612, they have a greattri-radio part, but how have they
(08:37):
taken that part and really stepped itup with respect to interoperability?
Yeah, that's a great question.
One of the things that NXP is settingthemselves apart with is the RW612,
like you mentioned, which is a MatterBorder Router combined in one chip.
This allows customers to build theMatter ecosystem using just that chip.
(09:02):
It's a low cost development board.
It simplifies design and reducesthe bill of materials, which
customers really appreciate.
Okay.
So how have you seen customersgetting started with the RW612?
What's the most popular way?
We've made it easierfor them to get started.
The FRDM-RW612 board, which isavailable at a low cost value of $30.
(09:25):
We have partner modules as wellwith uBlox, Murata, and CEL,
which are all plug-and-play.
So customers can prototype andvalidate quickly, which shortens
their path to production.
So Sanjay, let's wrap up by looking ahead.
Where do you see the biggestchallenges in wireless and
where's the most exciting reward?
I, I feel like you, you wannastart with the positives first?
(09:48):
So I wanna talk about the biggest reward.
Yeah, let's keep it positive.
So like the biggest rewardis Customer Empowerment.
When customers can deploy a solution,which is secure, interoperable,
and uses the NXP SDKs and thereference designs, and they don't
have to deal with the friction.
That's a huge win for us.
(10:09):
It also helps reduce our work,and helps them bring their
products quicker into the market.
It increases their confidence inthe wireless deployments as well.
The other piece is theIndustry Standards bit.
Wherein we are getting involved inthe evolution of Matter and Aliro.
(10:31):
As the standards keep growing andwe are contributing to that adoption
through the robust platforms likeRW612 which positions NXP as a leader
in shaping the future of connectivity.
Wow.
Lots of future benefits andexcitement for customers.
Okay, so now share with us the other side.
What are the inevitable challenges?
(10:54):
Well, I mean, everythinghas its own flip-side.
One thing that sort of comes to my mindis the Scalability bit and Certification.
So as the ecosystems grow, youfeel like there needs a lot more
testing and that needs to scale.
We need to work oncompliance and certification.
Which means that the SystemsEngineering team must ensure that
(11:14):
the devices not only work reliablyacross vendors, but partners as well.
The other piece that I wanted totouch on is when I spoke about the
positive of the customer enablementbit and the ecosystem support.
One slight negative would be we'llhave to work on supporting multiple
customers, through the SDKs, thereference designs and the customer
(11:39):
integrations that come with it.
This is a bit of a challengefor us because we see that the
use cases have diversified andthey diversify very quickly.
The teams will need to anticipate thoseneeds across Smart Home, Industrial,
Automotive and Medical domains as well.
You are right Sanjay.
It's super complex andthose are huge challenges.
(12:01):
I think everybody's working towards it.
You talked about Matter and Aliro.
I think those are ways that we'retrying to get everybody to work
together to make it easier to deliverthese next generation Smart Devices.
But let's wrap up the episode.
We had a great time with youSanjay, talking about the
NXP wireless connectivity.
We talked about all of thestandards that you're involved in.
(12:23):
You're out there supporting ourcustomers with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi,
802.15.4, more specifically with ZigBee.
Supporting protocols and applicationslike Matter, Thread, Aliro, Bluetooth,
Wi-Fi, all those things that are addingcomplexity into the customer's products.
What you talked about and whatyou did a great job explaining
(12:45):
was the interoperability.
It's not just sticking threeradios on a chip, or in a product.
It's how do those radios, how do thoseprotocols, how does all that interact.
And how does everybody, as Bridgettesay, get a fair voice and don't let
one person rob all of the bandwidth.
So great job Sanjay on helpingour listeners understand.
(13:07):
The RW612 sounds incredible, and I thinkit's gonna be great for our listeners.
What a great episode.
Thanks Sanjay for sharingso much information about
the wireless space today.
We appreciate you being here.
Thank you for inviting me.
I didn't realize the time go by and,uh, I always like to talk about wireless
(13:27):
and everything that comes with it.
Well to our listeners, if youenjoyed this conversation, don't
forget to subscribe and followalong so you never miss an episode.
And if there's a topic you'd lovefor us to cover, let us know.
And until next time, keep innovating,go check out some cool wireless
stuff, and we'll catch you onthe next EdgeVerse Techcast.
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