The Zigbee Alliance is now the Connectivity Standards Alliance(CSA). Connectivity Standards Alliance (csa-iot.org)
The Zigbee Alliance was established in 2002 with a group of global technology companies that maintain and publish and promote Zigbee standards. Zigbee is the trademark of this group. This group develop the standard in collaboration and certify Zigbee products that make sure interoperability.
Who are the companies in Zigbee Alliance ?
The alliance include big companies like Samsung, Amazon, Huawei, NXP Semiconductor, Schneider Electric, Signify, Legrand .
What is ZigBee Solution for IoT ?
ZigBee is an IEEE 802.15.4-based – a low power and low data rate but low latency ,wireless mesh network protocol that can operate in 4 bands 2.4 GHz, 868 MHz and 915 MHz, 784MHZ(only in China). It usually consists of coordinator, router and end devices. Each ZigBee network must have one and only one ZigBee coordinator; it could establish the network and choose which network to use for network communication. Zigbee router can send and receive and route information between its own network or other existing network; it cannot be sleep and must be powered all the time. Zigbee end device is the most basic type of device in Zigbee network,and it can only communicate with router and coordinator not external network, so it can be in sleep mode to save power . Zigbee network communicated in 2.4 GHZ has the highest data transfer speed v.s. the other lower frequency bands.
ZigBee Key Tech Specs for a 2.4 Ghz ISM band:
ZigBee Stack Architecture outline:
ZigBee chips are typically integrated with radios and with microcontrollers. The major IC and SOC solution suppliers include Silicon Labs,STmicroelectronics.
What are key benefits of ZigBee for product developer to choose it?
- Low cost to implement and ultra low power to support long battery life.
- Flexible network but more reliable with self healing features.
- Scalable and easy to setup network and configure by end users.
- Great Eco system with a lot interoperative devices (300 millions devices shipped )in the market.
- Great support from alliance on testing, certification and marketing support to launch products.
What are some cons of adopting Zigbee?
Low data transmission rate limit application to certain type of IoT application.
- Concern on wireless network security vulnerability- ZigBee offers AES 128 bits encryption built upon IEEE 802.15.4 security model.
- Channel noise in the 2.4Ghz Band
- Compatibility not as good as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in mobile devices and laptops.
- Other alternative wireless technology like Z-Wave.
What is Matter ? Formerly known as Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP).
Matter is the unified IP based connectivity protocol built on market tested smart home technologies, such as those from Amazon, Apple, Google and the Zigbee alliance and others. This will help device manufactures to build devices that are compatible with smart home and voice assistant service such as Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant and others. The first specification release of Matter will run on Wi-Fi and Thread network layer and will use Bluetooth Low Energy for commissioning.
This new standard is great collaboration between the biggest technologies companies with an open sourced approach to development and implementation of this unified communication protocol .
It will create more robust device offering that with great connectivity, security and interoperability, so that it will make simple for customer to choose between different manufactures without worrying about compatibility. With the Matter logo on IoT product, it will ensure a seal of approval of reliability and interoperability and security to the end users.
It is still in the early stage of this Matter protocol, so there will be more announcement coming from CSA about the milestones achieved on this.
It is definitely exciting news for a lot device manufactures and OEMs that they can really focus on the product innovation not worry about the IP network communication protocols.
