[SOLVED] Connect to or participate on multiple zigbee networks

Setup, Configuration and Use Runtime
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  • Platform information:
    • Hardware: arm64 arch / 2GB ram / 32GB storage
    • OS: Armbian (ubuntu) focal
    • Java Runtime Environment: openjdk version 1.8.0_252
    • openHAB version: 2.5.4 Release Build

Hi all

Question below @ Q:

So: I run OpenHAB on (ubuntu) Armbian S905x amlogic box just fine. A
CC2531 TI USB stick is connected. It now runs the recommended
CC2531ZNP-Pro-Secure_Standard.hex and appears online as ‘CC2531EMK
Coordinator’ Thing manually added ‘Zigbee Binding’. Previously I had
it running CC2531ZNP-Prod.hex for zigbee2mqtt but then it, as
documented, would not appear as online Thing in OpenHAB.

Right now I have several Philips Hue lamps and other Philips Hue
devices and a Philips Hue Gateway as Coordinator. Soon I will have
several Xiaomi devices and an Aqara Gateway as their Coordinator.

So I will end up with 2 neworks (a Philips and a Xiaomi one).

Ideally I would arrange for the CC2531 TI USB stick to be Coordinator
of a single Zigbee network for both, and later maybe more,
vendors. But I will probably not be able to convince others in the
family to drop the convenient (Philips and Xiaomi) apps and their
specific usage.

I also tried router-cc2531-std.hex firmware but the CC2531 TI USB
stick could not join the Philips network.

I had hoped Zigbee protocol allows some device like the CC2531 TI USB
stick to ‘connect’, or, at least ‘monitor’ multiple networks and have it recognize devices in both without disturbing or affecting (and perhaps complementing) the network coordinator(s).

Something like:

philips \               / xiaomi
       gw P - cc2531 - X gw
network /               \ network

So the CC2531 TI USB stick must not become Coordinator but, hopefully,
can nevertheless see all devices and their properties in all networks.

Q: Is such functionality available in the Zigbee protocol?
[functionality = connect to and read all data from multiple networks]
If so, is it implemented in OpenHAB and which firmware should I
flash on the stick?

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In general, this isn’t possible. While 802.15.4 does support inter-PAN traffic, it’s not part of ZigBee and I’ve not really seen any devices that support it.

The only way I can think of here is to have two networks - ie two sticks. One stick is your local network where the stick is a coordinator, and the other is a router on the Hue network.

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