Enhance requestAddress by looping through poll responses

[TMRh20]

• When beginning to request an address, the requesting node will gather poll responses. Utilize all poll responses: If an address request fails, continue looping through available poll responses until all address requests at that level have been exhausted

Old Behaviour Example:

• Node sends NETWORK_POLL
• Node recieves multiple Poll Responses
• If response received from one or more nodes, request an address, else return 0
• If address response fails, return 0

New Behaviour Example:

• Node sends NETWORK_POLL
• Node recieves multiple Poll Responses
• If response received from one or more nodes, request an address, else loop through poll requests
• If address response fails, loop through available poll responses
• Return 0 if all poll responses have been exhausted

Still testing this new code, but it basically involves moving one bracket and changing some return statements to continues.

[2bndy5]

It's hard to believe we didn't pick up on this before. I can't think of any disadvantages. Maybe users might observe a slower mesh connecting performance when the mesh is well populated, but this feels like the proper approach regardless.

[TMRh20]

Haha, I know right? The whole polling system was built on having multiple polls, so why we didn't exploit that fact before is beyond me. I think it should offer better performance in most situations, since one problem with a populated mesh is receiving polls from the wrong 'level' when poll responses are delayed.

[2bndy5]

Looking at the whole function body, I think we can optimize the while loop that collects poll responses.

RF24Mesh/RF24Mesh.cpp

Lines 325 to 356 in 7c30deb

	while (1) {
	#if defined(MESH_DEBUG)
	bool goodSignal = radio.testRPD();
	#endif
	if (network.update() == NETWORK_POLL) {
	memcpy(&contactNode[pollCount], &network.frame_buffer[0], sizeof(uint16_t));
	if (pollCount > 0 && contactNode[pollCount] != contactNode[pollCount - 1]) { //Drop duplicate polls to help prevent duplicate requests
	++pollCount;
	}
	else {
	++pollCount;
	}
	IF_MESH_DEBUG(printf_P(PSTR("%u: MSH Poll %c -64dbm\n"), millis(), (goodSignal ? '>' : '<')));
	} // end if
	if (millis() - timr > 55 || pollCount >= MESH_MAXPOLLS) {
	if (!pollCount) {
	IF_MESH_DEBUG(printf_P(PSTR("%u: MSH No poll from level %d\n"), millis(), level));
	return 0;
	}
	else {
	IF_MESH_DEBUG(printf_P(PSTR("%u: MSH Poll OK\n"), millis()));
	break;
	}
	}
	MESH_CALLBACK
	} // end while
	IF_MESH_DEBUG(printf_P(PSTR("%u: MSH Got poll from level %d count %d\n"), millis(), level, pollCount));

#if defined(MESH_DEBUG)
    bool goodSignal = radio.testRPD();
#endif
    while (millis() - timr < 55 && pollCount < MESH_MAXPOLLS) {
        if (network.update() == NETWORK_POLL) {
            uint16_t contact = 0;
            memcpy(&contact, &network.frame_buffer[0], sizeof(contact));

            // Drop duplicate polls to help prevent duplicate requests
            bool isDupe = false;
            for (uint8_t i = 0; i < pollCount; ++i) {
                if (contact == contactNode[i]) {
                    isDupe = true;
                    break;
                }
            }
            if (!isDupe) {
                contactNode[pollCount] = contact;
                ++pollCount;
            }

            IF_MESH_DEBUG(printf_P(PSTR("%u: MSH Poll %c -64dbm\n"), millis(), (goodSignal ? '>' : '<')));
        } // end if

        MESH_CALLBACK
    } // end while

    IF_MESH_DEBUG(printf_P(PSTR("%u: MSH Got poll from level %d count %d\n"), millis(), level, pollCount));
    if (!pollCount) return 0;

[2bndy5]

BTW, I think it is more performant to

uint32_t timeout = millis() + 225;
while (millis() < timeout) { /* ... */ }

instead of

uint32_t timr = millis();
while (millis() - timr < 225) { /* ... */ }

because the arithmetic for calculating the time diff is abstracted away from each iteration of the loop.

[TMRh20]

Updated per your suggestions but slightly modified:

• Had to remove millis() from printf calls due to corruption of the output again, similar to RF24Network
• Made printfcalls more human readable
• Put testRPD debug info inside Poll loop
• Put RPD results debug info inside !isDupe logic

[2bndy5]

FYI, I cherry picked the merge commit from this PR onto the 1.x branch. If I overstepped (or somehow screwed it up), then it can be reverted.

[TMRh20]

I keep forgetting about the 1.x branch. Glad you remembered!

@2bndy5 Are we about due for a release crusade? Its been around a year since the last release...

[2bndy5]

Yeah, we probably should. Although, the only real changes that affect Arduino platform (which are directly influenced by our tagged commits/releases) are the network layers. The RF24 lib itself just has doc & example updates; the rest is specific to Linux (nRF24/RF24@v1.4.8...master).

I gotta get back to investigating the piwheels' 32-bit build problem with pyRF24 deployments (nRF24/pyRF24#61)...