Zigbee

ZigBee under IEEE 802.15.4 standard was developed for addressing the market demand for cost-effective solution for wireless networking which supports low consumption of power low data rates, reliability and security. ZigBee is addressed the special needs of most of the remote monitoring and sensory and control network applications. ZidBee nodes may be used for tying an entire office, home or factory together for security, control, safety and convenience. Nodes can be incorporated in a huge number of controls and sensors which are built into big infrastructures for industrial automation, home automation, medical equipment, remote metering, automotives, asset tracking systems, patient monitoring, temperature control systems, lighting and security systems.

The system is specified to operate in one of the three license free bands at 2.4 GHz, 915 MHz for North America and 868 MHz for Europe. In this way the standard is able to operate around the globe, although the exact specifications for each of the bands are slightly different. At 2.4 GHz there are a total of sixteen different channels available, and the maximum data rate is 250 kbps. For 915 MHz there are ten channels and the standard supports a maximum data rate of 40 kbps, while at 868 MHz there is only one channel and this can support data transfer at up to 20 kbps.

Basically, there are three kinds of ZigBee devices:

• Network Coordinator,
• Router,
• End Devices.