Zigbee, A Wireless Future Technology

ZigBee also included in the IEEE 802.15 family of standards along with Bluetooth (802.15.1) and UWB (802.15.3) with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard code. Compared with Bluetooth and UWB, ZigBee only have a maximum communication speed of 250kbps only. Maximum communication distance was short (10m? 70m). But ZigBee has the advantage in a very easy operation, a small, inexpensive and requires very low power (low power consumption) compared with two other families, Bluetooth and UWB.

ZigBee uses three frequency bands are used differently. For the current frequency of 915MHz is used in the U.S., 868MHz in Europe, and 2.4GHz in Japan. For his physical and MAC layer itself using the standard IEEE 802.15.4. For the layers above it (data link, network, and application interface) is determined by the ZigBee Alliance (there are 124 companies registered ZigBee technology developers to January 2005).

ZigBee is an equivalent word and Zig Bee. Zig zig-zag motion means and the Bee is a bee. Because it has properties similar communication with the communication between the bees that make erratic movements in conveying information to the presence of honey bees that one to the other bees. Currently, ZigBee logo trade mark used by Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV

Of course we wonder, what can be done by having only ZigBee communication speed 250kbps, while Bluetooth can communicate with maximum speeds up to 3Mbps and the first UWB personal communication that has a speed of 480Mbps. Indeed, ZigBee may not be used for communications that require high speed such as for multimedia transmission of voice, video or large data. But on the side of our daily lives the other, we are even more frequent touch on the things that are controlling the information sensors that do not require high speed data transmission. As an application sensors that generally we use today. For example, temperature sensors, humidity, light, pressure and others. Communication between the sensors (sensor networks), this is actually more needed in homes and factories.

This is where ZigBee plays a role that can not be done by other WPAN. ZigBee can communicate with ZigBee node 65 000 at the same time with an ad-hoc method komunikasimultihop without having to make any arrangements with him. This type of communication in the form of a star (star) or tree (tree) can be performed without the need for fellow ZigBee base station or access point, so it can perform a random communication (mesh network).

Another uniqueness is owned by the ZigBee Sebuat can be operated with batteries (button type) for one more year non-stop on the ZigBee sensor devices. Because ZigBee has stackyang very simple protocol, ZigBee can transmit data over 127 characters (127 bytes) only. The data is very small as can be sent by ZigBee has 250kbps transmission speed, and can reduce the burden on host CPUs. When the Bluetooth minimum required 32-bit microcomputer, then with the ZigBee requires only a microcomputer 4 or 8 bits only. In addition, the Bluetooth system initialization takes tens of seconds, while ZigBee requires only 30ms (while the condition of sleep / sleep until bangunya just need to 15ms) only. This is very suitable for sensor devices that require time-speed operation ON / OFF is high.