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ZigBee Low-Power Wireless Networking
asmithmd1 writes "Do you you have a great idea for a wireless device that really doesn't need the 1 Mbit/sec (and high power consumption) of Bluetooth? Well you will have a new choice soon, ZigBee. Zigbee is the trademark for IEEE 802.15 Personal Area network low data rate standard. Designed to run in low power 8 bit devices at data rates of 20k bits/second, a ZigBee node will run for months if not years on one set of batteries. With heavy hitters like Motorola and Phillips behind it and chips available soon for half the cost of bluetooth, it looks like it will become a reality."
yes, the 2.4 ghz is getting oversaturated, but the FCC needs to open up more spectrum, as for uses, it will have some, (and yes better than toasters wasteing IP's, just NAT/IPv6 that stuff). WIll it be overhyped like bluetooth? yes. Will it be completely unessesary in some cases (IE, wi-fi in a palm) Yes. lets just hope that this protical does checking to see if a channel is in use (like wi-fi) and not act like bluethooth's channel hopping spred spectrum stuff
come comment on the madness at http://slashdot.org/~phreak03/journal/
This could be helpful both against pickpockets and easily distracted slashdotters. :-)
This would be fantastic for billions of devices in the world that don't need massive bandwidth: fire and intrusion alarms, periodic appliance and vehicle telemetry dumps, remote controls for doorknobs and electrical items and so forth, electric and gas meters, cable box uplinks, sump pump failure alarms, water heater leak detectors, etc.
I've long desired to see a dynamically forming pervasive network based on a technology just like this, that would allow your car or child or laptop to tell you (via an embedded transponder) where it went if it got "lost". I'd like a battery-powered alarm in my storage unit that would notify me if someone broke in, or if water was leaking in, or the battery was low. Same goes for my home burglar alarm. It would be nice if you could connect a device to the network for pennies a day. I don't need 128Kbits/sec for a smoke detector (at $60/mo/node over CDMA!!!), but I do need always-on connectivity.
The example you always see about your refrigerator ordering more milk for you is completely stupid, but it would be nice if your washing machine could let the manufacturer know that preventative service was required before it died. Manufacturers would also love to be able to collect test data from deployed devices for defect tracking and analysis.
Presumably wall-powered devices would form more powerful repeaters for the battery-powered nodes, then network nodes would send the traffic through some wired network or the internet for further application-specific routing. Anyway, driving down the cost opens up a dramatic new frontier of wireless applications for any device with a modicum of state or intelligence.
sufficient for cellular data, mice, and keyboard
See ? You're already finding something. I would just love the ability to use my keyboard from another room. That's one application.
Remotes in the more generic sense of the word could benefit from that. Every time my son is in from of my DVD player, I can't control it anymore. Of course, that's exactly when I need to press "Pause" because he is about to raise my 4*250W stereo volume knob to it's maximum. IR sucks.
Streaming the display data of a PC playing music (track, time, etc...) is probably another possible application.
This way I can really avoid a stupid, ugly and noisy PC case in my living room. Just pull one cable (Audio/Video) and the rest is remote. The PC will rot and take dust in my garage while I enjoy every kind of I/O in my living room.
Ain't that cool?
Write boring code, not shiny code!
IIRC, the top speed on Ir is about 4Mps. Transferring common files like 3-5 megabyte MP3's might take way longer at this proposed 20kbps wireless rate. Almost every laptop produced in the last couple of years has Ir.
Maybe this could be utlized in some kind of USB/Flash/Wireless keychain that could store user prefences. Walk upto a PC, and presto, your themes, wallpaper, IM buddy list etc, all before you. Walk away and everything is back to default.
But PDA syncing at 20kb/s wouldn't be bad if it could do it automatically & continuously when you are in range of the wireless network.
I have to admit, my first thought was, "Great, another competing standard to make things more of a pain in the ass, AND it's slower."
Then I realized that such a thing could have some uses. You know those little 8x24 LCD screens? It'd be cool to be able to mount one of those on the front of your monitor with the computer on the floor, without having to string a serial cable. All kinds of uses right there. Mmmm.
SIGFEH
You mean we're supposed to READ the article before replying to the thread here? How are we supposed to whore up karma points that way? Only Evelyn Wood speed readers will have karma to spare! Screw that!
Seriously, though... 250kbps is better than my upstream on my DSL line. With a 95ft range more or less, that covers your entire house. This could be VERY useful.
Bluetooth is only 4x the speed, but IIRC much shorter range. This sounds like some great technology that may well become ubiquitous (god knows if I spelled THAT right) in the not too distant future.
It's good to see that there are people that are never satisfied with what's available and are always looking for alternatives. I think in many cases I'd give up 4x speed for increased range, lower cost and significantly longer battery life.
time to other devices (or vice/versa if it's a clock that set's itself from the Colorado time signal like mine)
I could see joysticks using this.
Light switches ala X-10.
Water meters, power meters, gas meters, wireless thermometers and other sensors.
VCR's could use it as an interface to allow configuration from a computer.
TV's could use it as a way to implement a universal RF remote control.
Apparently they already thought of some of these ideas.
From the ZigBee FAQ:
* Wireless home security
* Remote thermostats for air conditioner
* Remote lighting, drape controller
* Call button for elderly and disabled
* Universal remote controller to TV and radio
* Wireless keyboard, mouse and game pads
* Wireless smoke, CO detectors
* Industrial and building automation and control (lighting, etc.)
Then you could combine a few of these things to implement something the detects when it's too hot inside and it's colder outside and the humidity outside isn't too bad, turn on a fan. This is otherwise very complicated but hook up a few thermometers, a humidity sensor and a switch that are all accessible from a computer and it gets very easy.
set softtabstop=4 shiftwidth=4 expandtab nocp worlddomination
I can think of a lot that would only require 1 bit per second. A flow indicator on water,gas or electricity lines would tell the computer if there was flow on any particular line than if the computer knew by sensors on the users of that flow could determine if the flow was caused by a leak or short. The computer could either notify someone or take corrective action on it own. Automatic control of blinds by the need or lack of need of heat in that room. Automatic fans that would turn on if the outside temperature is less than the inside temperature and it is not raining . I could see a home with hundreds or thousands of sensors if they could be produce cheaply enough.
This would be nice for a weather station. Just mount it on the roof and then put the receiver in the house somewhere within range. The whole thing could be solar powered on the roof. No need to run a cable or power unit up there.
Hopefully handhelds and remote controls pick it up too so we can control the Stereo/TV/Media Center with our Handhelds and not have to worry about leaving the door to the entertainment center open.
Talking on finding something; hopefully it could be used for a transmitter/receiver in my keychain, my PDA, my wallet, and my phone handset that I can use to triangulate their position when I want to find the darn things! Then I wouldn't spend so much time running around looking for them when I want to go out.
a.
This would ROCK at work. Most of our problems (production plant) stem from flexing and bending sensor wires. If we could just tie all the sensors on a machine into wireless interfaces, my job would be twice as easy... but... then they wouldn't need as many technicians.
Forget it, the idea stinks.
One interesting point about Zigbee is that its design will allow for easier formation of multi-hop networks, something that is sorely lacking with Bluetooth. Bluetooth nodes are required to establish connections, choose to be either master or slave nodes, under a whole load of annoying restrictions such as inability to be a slave of more than two masters at once, inability to be a master to more than 7 active slaves, etc. Totally adverse to a nice mesh topology like one can set up with CSMA/CA radios. On top of that, thanks to frequency hopping, discovery in Bluetooth takes about 5-10 seconds, and connection setup 1-4 under reasonable settings... quite irritating.