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ZigBee Wireless Standard Ratified

Posted by michael on from the do-you-zig? dept.

ductormalef writes "Today, the ZigBee Alliance announced the release (pdf) of version 1.0. ZigBee is a standard for low data-rate (250kbps max) wireless personal area networks (WPANs). It utilizes the IEEE 802.15.4 hardware and MAC layers which utilize frequency bands at 898MHz, 902-928MHz, and 2.4GHz. ZigBee supports mesh networking and claims to be 'wireless control that simply works.' They claim to be a solution to everything from wireless home automation to industrial control."

10 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. So... by Tuxedo+Jack · · Score: 4, Funny

    I guess you could say this is...

    ZIG-nigificant?

    Or that we should take off every Zig?

    Thank you, thank you, I'm here all week.

    --

    Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
    1. Re:So... by Kenshin · · Score: 3, Funny

      Standard approved! Launch all ZigBee!

      --

      Does it make you happy you're so strange?

  2. Industrial? by vasqzr · · Score: 5, Insightful



    ZigBee supports mesh networking and claims to be 'wireless control that simply works.' They claim to be a solution to everything from wireless home automation to industrial control.

    We'll see how this works. The last factory we worked in, we had to use fiber (10MB at that) because cables would have too much interference.

  3. Simply works? by BBrown · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "ZigBee: Wireless Control that Simply Works"

    From my days in compsci classes, anything that simply works usually isn't working at all.

  4. Uh oh... by bomjolo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A new door opens in the world of aerial communism...

  5. bluetooth called by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    it wants its idea back

    1. Re:bluetooth called by Excelsior · · Score: 5, Informative

      I know you are telling a joke, but I'm not sure whether it is more humorous or innacurate.

      I suggest reading a nice summary over at MIT Technology Review.

      But since you obviously don't read the articles, let me cover it for you:
      - Zigbee is power efficient. A ZigBee switch should be able to run off watch batteries for years. Bluetooth - HA!
      - Zigbee stack is a small 28k. Bluetooth's stack is 250k.
      - Zigbee networks can support up to 255 nodes, and can be switched to 16 bit addressing to support 65,000 nodes. Bluetooth can have 8 active nodes, 255 total.
      - Zigbee range is around 30 meters. Bluetooth is 10 meters.
      - Zigbee supports three network topologies (star, mesh, cluster tree). Bluetooth supports a dynamic piconet topology.
      - Zigbee enabled devices can be built cheaply. Bluetooth was *supposed* to be cheap. This is due to the short stack.

      And the list goes on. See the ZigBee FAQ.

      Zigbee is designed for a very specific application (switching, censors, controllers, etc.). And by this list, you can see that it was specifically designed to meet the needs of that application. Bluetooth does not and cannot support that application, just like Zigbee cannot support the application Bluetooth was designed for (cable replacement).

  6. $5 chips by March, says Mr Zigbee - Bob Heile by judgecorp · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Zigbee chips will be available for $5 in the first quarter of 2005, according to Bob Heile of the Zigbee Alliance. I had a long interview with him about Zigbee's prospects. He clearly enjoys his work.

    Zigbee will be big in phones, and he reckons it's on target for 5 million units by the end of 2005.

    Peter Judge. Techworld

  7. price sensitive by LordMyren · · Score: 3, Interesting

    zigbee is aimed at very price sensitive markets, but has one currently fatal flaw:
    you have to purchase software stacks.

    most any hardware a developer buys is worthless without another huge investment in a software stack to run the standard.

    some people are just using a zigbee's basic transmit/recieve functionality withotu many of the integral spec features for this reason. its like buying an 802.11 chipset that doesnt work with anything else.

    the zigbee industry desperately needs to get together and release free software for a number of different micro-architectures.

    myren

    1. Re:price sensitive by ucdoughboy · · Score: 3, Informative

      Open Source Network stack built on zigbee radios already exits. Check out the tinyOs effort. Compare to Blue tooth, zig bee radios are much more power efficient.