ZIGBEE ZigBee is an established set of specifications for wireless personal area networking (WPAN), i.e.

digital radio connections between computers and related devices. WPAN Low Rate or ZigBee provides specifications for devices that have low data rates, consume very low power and are thus characterized by long battery life. ZigBee makes possible completely networked homes where all devices are able to communicate and be controlled by a single unit. The ZigBee Alliance, the standards body which defines ZigBee, also publishes application profiles that allow multiple OEM vendors to create interoperable products. The current list of application profiles either published or in the works are: Home Automation ZigBee Smart Energy Telecommunication Applications Personal Home

The relationship between IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee is similar to that between IEEE 802.11 and the Wi-Fi Alliance. For non-commercial purposes, the ZigBee specification is available free to the general public. An entry level membership in the ZigBee Alliance, called Adopter, costs US$ 3500 annually and provides access to the as-yet unpublished specifications and permission to create products for market using the specifications. ZigBee is one of the global standards of communication protocol formulated by the relevant task force under the IEEE 802.15 working group. The fourth in the series, WPAN Low Rate/ZigBee

is the newest and provides specifications for devices that have low data rates, consume very low power and are thus characterized by long battery life. Other standards like Bluetooth and IrDA address high data rate applications such as voice, video and LAN communications. ZigBee devices are actively limited to a throughrate of 250Kbps, compared to Bluetooth's much larger pipeline of 1Mbps, operating on the 2.4 GHz ISM band, which is available throughout most of the world. In the consumer market ZigBee is being explored for everything from linking lowpower household devices such as smoke alarms to a central housing control unit, to centralized light controls. The specified maximum range of operation for ZigBee devices is 250 feet (76m), substantially further than that used by Bluetooth capable devices, although security concerns raised over "sniping" Bluetooth devices remotely, may prove to hold true for ZigBee devices as well. Due to its low power output, ZigBee devices can sustain themselves on a small battery for many months, or even years, making them ideal for install-and-forget purposes, such as most small household systems. Predictions of ZigBee installation for the future, most based on the explosive use of ZigBee in automated household tasks in China, look to a near future when upwards of sixty ZigBee devices may be found in an average American home, all communicating with one another freely and regulating common tasks seamlessly. The ZigBee Alliance has been set up as an association of companies working together to enable reliable, cost-effective, low-power, wirelessly networked, monitoring and control products based on an open global standard. Once a manufacturer enrolls in this Alliance for a fee, he can have access to the standard and implement it in his products in the form of ZigBee chipsets that would be built into the end devices. Philips, Motorola, Intel, HP are all members of the Alliance. The goal is to provide the consumer with ultimate flexibility, mobility, and ease of use by building wireless intelligence and capabilities into every day devices. ZigBee technology will be embedded in a wide range of products and applications across consumer, commercial, industrial and government markets worldwide. For the first time, companies will have a standardsbased wireless platform optimized for the unique needs of remote monitoring and control applications, including simplicity, reliability, lowcost and low-power. The target networks encompass a wide range of devices with low data rates in the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) radio bands, with building-automation controls like intruder/fire

alarms, thermostats and remote (wireless) switches, video/audio remote controls likely to be the most popular applications. So far sensor and control devices have been marketed as proprietary items for want of a standard. With acceptance and implementation of ZigBee, interoperability will be enabled in multi-purpose, self-organizing mesh networks. Software and hardware The software is designed to be easy to develop on small, inexpensive microprocessors. The radio design used by ZigBee has been carefully optimized for low cost in large scale production. It has few analog stages and uses digital circuits wherever possible. Even though the radios themselves are inexpensive, the ZigBee Qualification Process involves a full validation of the requirements of the physical layer. This amount of concern about the Physical Layer has multiple benefits, since all radios derived from that semiconductor mask set would enjoy the same RF characteristics. On the other hand, an uncertified physical layer that malfunctions could cripple the battery lifespan of other devices on a ZigBee network. Where other protocols can mask poor sensitivity or other esoteric problems in a fade compensation response, ZigBee radios have very tight engineering constraints: they are both power and bandwidth constrained. Thus, radios are tested to the ISO 17025 standard with guidance given by Clause 6 of the 802.15.4-2006 Standard. Most vendors plan to integrate the radio and microcontroller onto a single chip. CHARACTERISTICS

Dual PHY (2.4GHz and 868/915 MHz) Data rates of 250 kbps (@2.4 GHz), 40 kbps (@ 915 MHz), and 20 kbps (@868 MHz) Optimized for low duty-cycle applications (<0.1%) CSMA-CA channel access Yields high throughput and low latency for low duty cycle devices like sensors and controls

Low power (battery life multi-month to years) Multiple topologies: star, peer-to-peer, mesh Addressing space upto:18,450,000,000,000,000,000 devices (64 bit IEEE address) - 65,535 networks

Optional guaranteed time slot for applications requiring low latency

Fully hand-shake protocol for transfer reliability Range: 50m typical (5-500m based on environment) ZigBee Network Model

ZigBee Coordinator (FFD) ZigBee Router (FFD) ZigBee End Device (RFD or FFD)

ARCHITECTURE ZigBee is a home-area network designed specifically to replace the proliferation of individual remote controls. ZigBee was created to satisfy the market's need for a cost-effective, standards-based wireless network that supports low data rates, low power consumption, security, and reliability. To address this need, the ZigBee Alliance, an industry working group (www.zigbee.org), is developing standardized application software on top of the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless standard. The alliance is working closely with the IEEE to ensure an integrated, complete, and interoperable network for the market.

For example, the working group will provide interoperability certification testing of 802.15.4 systems that include the ZigBee software layer. The ZigBee Alliance will also serve as the

official test and certification group for ZigBee devices. ZigBee is the only standards-based technology that addresses the needs of most remote monitoring and control and sensory network applications. ZigBee is a home-area network designed specifically to replace the proliferation of individual remote controls. ZigBee was created to satisfy the market's need for a cost-effective, standardsbased wireless network that supports low data rates, low power consumption, security, and reliability. To address this need, the ZigBee Alliance, an industry working group (www.zigbee.org), is developing standardized application software on top of the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless standard. The alliance is working closely with the IEEE to ensure an integrated, complete, and interoperable network for the market. For example, the working group will provide interoperability certification testing of 802.15.4 systems that include the ZigBee software layer. The ZigBee Alliance will also serve as the official test and certification group for ZigBee devices. ZigBee is the only standards-based technology that addresses the needs of most remote monitoring and control and sensory network applications. ZigBee is a specification for a suite of high level communication protocols using small, lowpower digital radios based on the IEEE 802.15.4-2003 standard for wireless personal area networks (WPANs), such as wireless headphones connecting with cell phones via short-range radio. 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. The ZigBee Alliance is a group of companies that maintain and publish the ZigBee standard. ZigBee is a low-cost, low-power, wireless mesh networking proprietary standard. The low cost allows the technology to be widely deployed in wireless control and monitoring applications, the low power-usage allows longer life with smaller batteries, and the mesh networking provides high reliability and larger range. The ZigBee Alliance, the standards body that defines ZigBee, also publishes application profiles that allow multiple OEM vendors to create interoperable products.

ZigBee operates in the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio bands; 868 MHz in Europe, 915 MHz in the USA and Australia, and 2.4 GHz in most jurisdictions worldwide. The technology is intended to be simpler and less expensive than other WPANs such as Bluetooth. ZigBee chip vendors typically sell integrated radios and microcontrollers with between 60K and 128K flash memory. Because ZigBee can activate (go from sleep to active mode) in 15 msec or less, the latency can be very low and devices can be very responsive particularly compared to Bluetooth wake-up delays, which are typically around three seconds. Because ZigBees can sleep most of the time, average power consumption can be very low, resulting in long battery life. 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, selforganizing 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. 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.

Figure :structure of a Zigbee network

Advantages: Low cost allows the technology to be widely deployed in wireless control and monitoring applications. Low power-usage allows longer life with smaller batteries,. Mesh networking provides high reliability and larger range.

Applications: Home Automation ZigBee Smart Energy Telecommunication Applications Personal Home Hospital Care Commercial Building Automation Telecommunication Applications Personal, Home, and Hospital Care Toys