Can i use ESP8266 as a network adapter

Question

I have a IoT solution based on Freescale/NXP FRDM-K64 board and the MQX operating system, communicating to the Internet with Ethernet. Now I would like to change from Ethernet to Wi-Fi.

The ESP8266 (or another module under $10) can provide a mechanism to operate as a network adapter, ignoring the internal IP stack and sending the "low-level packages" to the Ethernet/IP stack already implemented in the current solution (something like a "totally transparent and bidirecional bridge")?

Furthermore, this Wi-Fi module can listen multiple ports simultaneously, for example: 80/443 for HTTP/S and 161 for SNMP?

If this requires a custom ESP firmware or some MQX modifications, can you provide some guidelines?

Answer 1

With the Espressif SDK 1.5.2 for the ESP8266 it's not possible to send "low-level packages". You can send UDP packets or can establish TCP connections. But unfortunately, there is no API for sending only packets.