readme
# ESP MODEM
This component is used to communicate with modems in command and data modes.
It abstracts the UART I/O processing into a DTE (data terminal equipment) entity which is configured and setup separately.
On top of the DTE, the command and data processing is performed in a DCE (data communication equipment) unit.
```
esp-modem
- start-ppp +-------+ +-------+
- stop-ppp | reset | | retry |
- events | helper| | helper|
+-------+ +-------+
+-----+ +-----+ . .
| DTE |--+->| DCE |.......................
+-----+ | +-----+
|
| +-------------+
+-----+ +->| modem-netif |
| PPP |------->| |
+-----+ +-------------+
```
## Start-up sequence
To initialize the modem we typically:
* create DTE with desired UART parameters
* create DCE with desired command palette and attach it to the DTE
* create PPP netif and attach it to the DTE
* configure event handlers for the modem and the netif
Then we can start and stop PPP mode using esp-modem API, as well as receive events from the `ESP_MODEM` base
as well as from netif (IP events).
### DTE
Responsibilities of the DTE unit are
* sending/receiving commands to/from UART
* sending/receiving data to/from UART
* changing data/command mode on physical layer
### DCE
Responsibilities of the DCE unit are
* definition of available commands
* cooperate with DTE on changing data/command mode
### PPP-netif
The modem-netif attaches the network interface (which was created outside of esp-modem) to the DTE and
serves as a glue layer between esp-netif and esp-modem.
### Additional units
ESP-MODEM provides these two modules, that could be used in addition to with other units to make
modem communication more robust:
* reset-helper is a very simple GPIO pulse generator, which could be typically used to reset or power up/down
the module
* retry-strategy is a command executor abstraction, that helps with retrying sending commands in case of a failure or a timeout.
## Modification of existing DCE
In order to support an arbitrary modem, device or introduce a new command we typically have to either modify the DCE,
adding a new or altering an existing command or creating a new "subclass" of the existing DCE variants.
## Internal design