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What is ZigBee Protocol?

Zigbee Protocol - Explained

Source: ZigBee Alliance

ZigBee protocol provides low-cost, low power solution for remotely controlling and monitoring smart equipments, fleet applications, home automation systems, medical devices and other compliant systems. It is used by leading manufacturers of semiconductor devices, technology firms, wireless communication devices as the de-facto communication protocol. 

In this article, we’re going to share some basics about what exactly is zigbee protocol, what are its applications and why is it the favorite communication standard of smart home manufacturers around the world.

What is ZigBee Protocol?

The ZigBee wireless technology is basically a openly available global standard to address the uniques needs of low-power, low-cost wireless M2M(machine-to-machine) networks and also Internet-of-Things(IoT). It operates on IEEE 802.15.4 physical radio specification and operates even in unlicensed band including 2.4 GHz, 900 MHz and 868 MHz.

In 2003, the 802.15.4 specification on which the ZigBee stack operates got an official approval and recognition from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). This specification is a packet-based radio protocol that is intended for the low-cost, battery-operated devices. This protocol offers devices to have battery life lasting for years and also allows them to communicate in a variety of network topologies.

ZigBee Protocol: Basics

The ZigBee protocol is robust in a way to be used in various hostile RF, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth based environments, which are common in various industrial applications. ZigBee protocol features a unique channel agility mechanism and takes full advantage of the IEEE 802.15.4 proven interference avoidance techniques. Some of the technical details for the ZigBee protocol are listed below:

Applications of ZigBee Technology

Because of its three major USPs of being low-cost, low-power consumption and having faster wireless connectivity, the ZigBee protocol caters to a lot of applications like industrial automation, home automation, smart metering, smart grids etc. Also with it low-power requirements, it ensures seamless operation of various sensor equipments offering years of battery-life. Here are some of the areas where ZigBee is widely used.

ZigBee for Home Automation

Source: ZigBee Alliance

ZigBee protocol is widely used for home automation solutions and caters to complete holistic solutions of lighting control, security control, comfort control and even energy management.

There are several well-known globals brands in home automation that use ZigBee for their devices. Since Zigbee is cross-compatible and interoperable, it makes managing multi-vendor devices easy and simple. If a device is ZigBee Home Automation (HA 2.1) compliant, you can be rest assured that it will work with your automation system, irrespective of the vendor.

The mesh-routing network of ZigBee wherein one device can talk to multiple device and data packets travel on no fixed routes, offers better flexibility and faster communication across devices.

Some of the features of ZigBee for Home Automation include:

ZigBee standards and ZigBee Alliance

The ZigBee Alliance is a group of companies that looks after maintaining and publishing the ZigBee standard and the word “ZigBee” is a trademark of this company. Based on the different application profiles published by the ZigBee standard, multiple OEM vendors can create several interoperable devices. Some of the application profiles that are published are:

The use of ZigBee is free for to the general public i.e. for non-commercial purposes is absolutely free.

Technical Details

Supported Brands

Some of the very famous brands in home automation that has its line of products working on the ZigBee protocol are Samsung, Philips, OSRAM, Sonos, Belkin and a lot more.

When You Should Pick ZigBee

Let us take a look at some of the advantages you get while selecting ZigBee products.

Further Reading

You can further get detailed Information on ZigBee on the below links:

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