ZigBee Protocol

ZigBee

ZigBee is a specification for a suite of high level communication protocols using small, low-power digital radios. The technology defined by the ZigBee specification is intended to be simpler and less expensive than other WPANs, such as Bluetooth. ZigBee is targeted at radio-frequency (RF) applications that require a low data rate, long battery life, and secure networking.

Uses

ZigBee protocols are intended for use in embedded applications requiring low data rates and low power consumption. ZigBee's current focus is to define a general-purpose, inexpensive, self-organizing mesh network that can be used for industrial control, embedded sensing, medical data collection, smoke and intruder warning, building automation, home automation, etc. The resulting network will use very small amounts of power — individual devices must have a battery life of at least two years to pass ZigBee certification.

Typical application areas include

Home Entertainment and Control — Smart lighting, advanced temperature control, safety and security, movies and music
Home Awareness — Water sensors, power sensors, energy monitoring, smoke and fire detectors, smart appliances and access sensors
Mobile Services — m-payment, m-monitoring and control, m-security and access control, m-healthcare and tele-assist
Commercial Building — Energy monitoring, HVAC, lighting, access control
Industrial Plant — Process control, asset management, environmental management, energy management, industrial device control, machine-to-machine (M2M) communication.

Device types

There are three different types of ZigBee devices:

ZigBee coordinator (ZC): The most capable device, the coordinator forms the root of the network tree and might bridge to other networks. There is exactly one ZigBee coordinator in each network since it is the device that started the network originally. It is able to store information about the network, including acting as the Trust Centre & repository for security keys.

ZigBee Router (ZR): As well as running an application function, a router can act as an intermediate router, passing on data from other devices.

ZigBee End Device (ZED): Contains just enough functionality to talk to the parent node (either the coordinator or a router); it cannot relay data from other devices. This relationship allows the node to be asleep a significant amount of the time thereby giving long battery life. A ZED requires the least amount of memory, and therefore can be less expensive to manufacture than a ZR or ZC.