* The new ZigBee wireless data standard
ZigBee: The new Bluetooth?
By John Greenland
Although most IT professionals, as well as a majority of consumers, are familiar with the Bluetooth wireless data-communications standard, very few are aware of the new ZigBee wireless data standard. In time this awareness will grow, but right now ZigBee is in the early stage of the adoption process; it’s just beginning to be rolled out in industrial applications, with consumer-oriented applications soon to follow.
The ZigBee standard differs from Bluetooth in many ways, but essentially it addresses a different set of market requirements.
First and foremost, ZigBee targets inexpensive, low-power applications. Integrated ZigBee chipsets, with battery power slated to last six months to two years, are available for $1 or less. In addition, ZigBee-enabled devices are networked readily: As many as 65,536 such devices can be connected in a star topology or a peer-to-peer configuration. The data rate for this cost-effective and low-power technology is 20K to 250Kbps.
ZigBee, based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, performs very well in environments with a low signal-to-noise ratio. Radio signals extend 10 meters to 40 meters, depending on settings and signal strength).
The ZigBee standard supports various network topologies fully — including mesh configurations with routes between nodes dynamically modified based on the availability of intermediate routing nodes — and is optimized for timing-critical applications and power management. It takes less than 30 msec to join a network, less than 15 msec to go from sleeping to active and less than 15 msec to access a channel.
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