Smart homes and automation are all fun and games until one of your devices runs out of sync. To enjoy all the benefits of your smart home, you need to ensure that all the devices co-ordinate and are in sync. That’s where Zigbee comes into play.
Zigbee is probably one of the leading protocols that monitor the smart home technology at your home and ensure that they are in sync. Zigbee is even teaming up with tech giants like Google, Amazon and Apple to further enhance smart home automation platforms.
Let’s find out how exactly does Zigbee work, what are the Zigbee products, and how is Zigbee beneficial.
So, What Exactly is Zigbee?
Zigbee is basically a standards-based wireless technology that allows for low-cost, low-power wireless machine to machine and IoT networks. To simply put, Zigbee is how your smart devices interact with each other, smartly and safely.
Zigbee protocols are something you’re way more familiar with, and its mesh networking system is what Bluetooth and Wifi fail to achieve. Bluetooth and Wifi are totally deemed redundant when it comes to meshing together low-power devices, as none can do as good as Zigbee does.
Mesh networking is nothing but LAN, WLAN or VLAN that implements one of two decentralized connection arrangements.
Zigbee Specifications: What Does Zigbee Do?
Zigbee technology is specifically designed for control sensor networks on IEEE 802.15.4 standard. It is basically for WLANs (wireless personal area networks). Its communication standard is characterized by physical and Media Access Control to facilitate handling several devices at low-data rates.
WPAN’s of Zigbee operates at 868 MHz, 902-928MHz and 2.4 GHz frequencies. To allow seamless periodic or intermediate two-way transmission of data within sensors and controls, the data rate is 250 kbps.
To simply put, Zigbee creates a personal communication network that can interact with other Zigbee devices, spanning over 300+ meters radius! Zigbee is a technology that plans ahead.
Since any time in future, we will have homes equipped with millions of sensors and smart devices, Zigbee can accommodate up to 65,000 devices onto its network!
No Need For a Centralized Hub
Zigbee eradicates the need for a centralized hub. Without the existence of a centralized hub, the devices can interact with each other over Zigbee’s mesh network. Although, it’s not set in stone that all Zigbee devices act as repeaters.
To be specific, wired in smart stuff like smart plugs, lights and other such sorts of Innr will potentially act as a repeater. However, keep in mind that battery powered sensors like motion and light sensors cannot work as repeaters.
They can simply send messages to a repeater or hub.
Into the Depths of Zigbee Technology
Zigbee 3.0, which is the current version, comes equipped with 128-bit symmetric encryption. This ensures that the interaction between the devices around the mesh network is safe and secure.
Since it works on 2.4 GHz, it contributes to boosting transfer rates. Zigbee, as mentioned above, can shoot around data at 250 kbps. This is way more than enough, at least for basic commands like “Hey, the door just opened” or maybe “increase light brightness to 50%”.
What Kind of Devices Use Zigbee and What Are Zigbee Products?
Zigbee recently started an alliance, which means that it is joining forces with many other tech giants to co-ordinate together. Zigbee now encompasses devices that span more than 2,500 in number!
Zigbee has managed to sell about half a million chipsets, and the Zigbee Alliance technologies will presumably end up selling 3.8 billion IEEE 802.15.4 units by 2023. Some of the predominant partner brands are Centrica, ARM, Philips, Comcast and AT&T.
Tech giants like Apple, Google and Amazon even announced in late 2019 that they will create a Connected Home over IP project; something that simplifies development for manufacturers and increases compatibility for consumers when it comes to smart home automation.
Some of the acclaimed Zigbee products are Amazon Echo Plus, Philips Hue (Signify), Samsung SmartThings, Bosch Security Systems, and Ikea Trådfli.
Takeaway
With the rise of smart devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home, we probably don’t need to ponder hard whether our devices use Zigbee or not. They can even run a different protocol, and it should all work out just fine. However, it would make the whole functionality seamless if all the smart devices work on the same protocol in your home, but even if they don’t, it’s not a major concern.
