What is Zigbee technology

Zigbee is a set of specs which are built around IEEE 802.15.4 protocol. IEEE stands for Institute of Electrical and the Electronics Engineers which is a non-profit organization which is dedicated to improving the technology which involves electronic devices and electronics. 802 is the group which is a section of IEEE and is involved in the technologies and network operations which include local networks and mid size networks.

The Group 15 specifically deals with the wireless network technologies and it also includes the Bluetooth group.

The name Zigbee had been derived because of the zigging patterns that are made by the bees between the flowers when they collect pollen. In a complete wireless environment, this is the same as the invisible webs of connections. The standard is regulated by Zigbee Alliance, which is a group consisting of more than 150 members all over the world.

Zigbee characteristics and benefits

Bluetooth focuses mainly on the connectivity between the large packet devices like major peripherals, phones and laptops while Zigbee has been designed mainly to provide high and efficient connectivity in small packet devices. Zigbee also provides simplified operations which are actually less complex when compared to the Bluetooth devices. The pricing for the Zigbee devices are quite competitive and they are available at a fraction of the price of the Bluetooth nodes.

The Zigbee devices are limited to a rate of 250kbps which, when compared to the Bluetooth devices’ larger rate of 1Mbps, operate on 2.4 GHz band. Zibgee was developed to meet the increasing demand for efficient wireless networking between the various low-powered devices.

Currently, in the industry, the Zigbee technology is used for automated manufacturing using small transmitters in all devices which allows communication between the central computer and the devices. This is the next level in communication which allows finely-tuned manipulation and monitoring with remote. For the consumer market, Zigbee is being considered to be used in everything from household devices using low power like smoke alarms to a fully central house control unit and light controls.

For the Zigbee devices, the maximum operation range which is specified is 250 feet which is substantially further when compared to what is used for the devices using Bluetooth.

However, several security concerns had been raised for sniping the Bluetooth devices and the same might be true even for the Zigbee devices. Because of the low power output, these devices can even sustain on a small battery for a long time, months or even for years which makes them ideal for all types of household systems. In the future, it is predicted that Zigbee would be used explosively in all automated tasks in households in China and later in the future, in quite a lot of homes even in American homes. All of these devices would be able to communicate to each other freely.