What is ZigBee Technology?

ZigBee Technology:

Overview or tutorial of the ZigBee commonplace and ZigBee technology used for remote sensing element, knowledge grouping applications.

ZigBee is predicated on the Institute of Electrical and physical science Engineers Standards Association's 802.15 specification. It operates on the IEEE 802.15.4 physical radio specification and in unauthorised radio frequencybands, together with two.4 GHz, 900 Mc and 868 Mc. The specifications square measure maintained and updated by the ZigBee Alliance.

As of this writing, there square measure 3 ZigBee specifications: ZigBee, ZigBee information processing and ZigBee RF4CE. ZigBee information processing optimizes the quality forIPv6 full mesh networks and ZigBee RF4CE optimizes the quality for partial mesh networks.
ZigBee may be a wireless networking commonplace that's geared toward remote and sensing element applications that is appropriate for operation in harsh radio environments and in isolated locations.
ZigBee technology builds on IEEE commonplace 802.15.4 that defines the physical and macintosh layers. Above this, ZigBee defines the appliance and security layer specifications sanctionative ability between product from completely different makers. during this means ZigBee may be a superset of the 802.15.4 specification.

With the applications for remote wireless sensing and management growing apace it's calculable that the market size might reach many a lot of greenbacks as early as 2007. This makes ZigBee technology a really engaging proposition for several applications.
ZigBee standards and ZigBee Alliance

The ZigBee commonplace is organized below the auspices of the ZigBee Alliance. This organisation has over seventy members, of that 5 have taken on the standing of what they term "promoter." These 5 corporations square measure fragment, Honeywell, Invensys, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Philips, and Samsung. below the umbrella of the ZigBee Alliance, the new commonplace are pushed forward, taking over board the necessities of the users, makers and therefore the system developers.

ZigBee standards and Releases:

ZIGBEE VERSION	COMMENTS AND DETAILS
ZigBee 2004	This was the original release of ZigBee - defined as ZigBee 1.0 which was publicly released in June 2005.
ZigBee 2006	This release of the ZigBee standard introduced the concept of a cluster library and was released in September 2006.
ZigBee 2007	The next version of the ZigBee standard was released publicly in October 2008 and contained two different profile classes
ZigBee PRO	ZigBee PRO was a profile class that was released in the ZigBee 2007 release. ZigBee PRO provides additional features required for robust deployments including enhanced security.
RF4CE	RF4CE - Radio Frequency for (4) Consumer Electronics was a standard that was aimed at audio visual applications. It was taken on board by the ZigBee Alliance and the Version 1.0 of the standard was released in 2009.

ZigBee Basics:

The distances which will be achieved transmission from one station to following extend up to regarding seventy metres, though substantially bigger distances could also be reached by relaying knowledge from one node to following in a very network.

The main applications for 802.15.4 square measure geared toward management and observance applications wherever comparatively low levels of knowledge outturn square measure required, and with the chance of remote, battery hopped-up sensors, low power consumption may be a key demand. Sensors, lighting controls, security and lots of additional applications square measure all candidates for the new technology.

Physical and macintosh layers:

The system is such to work in one among the 3 license free bands at two.4 GHz, 915 Mc for North America and 868 Mc for Europe. during this means the quality is in a position to work round the globe, though the precise specifications for every of the bands square measure slightly completely different. At 2.4 gigacycle per second there square measure a complete of sixteen completely different channels accessible, and therefore the most rate is 250 kbps. For 915 Mc there square measure 10 channels and therefore the commonplace supports a most rate of forty kbps, whereas at 868 Mc there's just one channel and this could support knowledge transfer at up to twenty kbps.
The modulation techniques conjointly vary in keeping with the band in use. Direct sequence unfold spectrum (DSSS) is employed all told cases. but for the 868 and 915 Mc bands the particular variety of modulation is binary section shift keying. For the 2.4 GHz band, offset construction section shift keying (O-QPSK) is used.

In view of the very fact that systems could operate in heavily full environments, and in areas wherever levels of extraneous interference is high, the 802.15.4 specification has incorporated a range of options to make sure extremely reliable operation. These embody a high quality assessment, receiver energy detection and clear channel assessment. CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access) techniques square measure accustomed verify once to transmit, and during this means supererogatory clashes square measure avoided.

Data transfer:

The data is transferred in packets. These have a most size of 128 bytes, leaving a most payload of 104 bytes. though this might seem low when put next to alternative systems, the applications within which 802.15.4 and ZigBee square measure seemingly to be used shouldn't need terribly high knowledge rates.

The standard supports sixty four bit IEEE addresses still as sixteen bit short addresses. The sixty four bit addresses unambiguously determine each device within the same means that devices have a singular information processing address. Once a network is about up, the short addresses will be used and this allows over 65000 nodes to be supported.

It conjointly has associate nonobligatory superframe structure with a way for time synchronisation. additionally to the present it's recognised that some messages ought to tend a high priority. to realize this, a secure interval mechanism has been incorporated into the specification. this allows these high priority messages to be sent across the network as fleetly as doable.

Upper layers (ZigBee):

Above the physical and macintosh layers outlined by 802.15.4, the ZigBee commonplace itself defines the higher layers of the system. This includes several aspects together with the electronic communication, the configurations which will be used, at the side of security aspects and therefore the application profile layers.

There square measure 3 completely different network topologies that square measure supported by ZigBee, specifically the star, mesh and cluster tree or hybrid networks. every has its own blessings and may be accustomed advantage in numerous things.

The star network is often used, having the advantage of simplicity. because the name suggests it's fashioned in a very star configuration with far nodes communication with a central node.
Mesh or peer to see networks modify high degrees of responsibleness to be obtained. They accommodates a range of nodes placed as required, and nodes inside vary having the ability to speak with one another to make a mesh. Messages could also be routed across the network mistreatment the various stations as relays. there's sometimes a selection of routes which will be used and this makes the network terribly sturdy. If interference is gift on one section of a network, then another will be used instead.

Finally there's what's called a cluster tree network. this is often primarily a mixture of star and mesh topologies.

Both 802.15.4 and ZigBee are optimised to make sure that low power consumption may be a key feature. though nodes with sensors of management mechanisms towards the centre of a network square measure additional seemingly to own mains power, several towards the acute might not. The low power style has enabled battery life to be generally measured in years, sanctionative the network to not need constant maintenance.

Conclusion:
Although there's associate increasing range of wireless standards that square measure showing, ZigBee incorporates a distinct space upon that it's focussed. it's not inteneded to vie with standards like 802.11, Bluetooth and therefore the like. Instead it's been optimised to make sure that it meets its supposed necessities, fulfilling the wants for remote and sensing applications...