By Amy Greener
Automation is a rapidly growing industry that will soon be a standard feature in every home and business. The current market mainly consists of wealthy homeowners and big businesses; not because automation companies want to exclude the general population, but until recently it was simply not a cost friendly product that was readily available. However, technicians have been working assiduously to find a way to expand the market to all homeowners so they, too, can benefit from the convenience, safety, and security that home automation offers.
ZigBee’s Mark of Difference
First of all, where did a name like ZigBee even come from? Who would have guessed an organization in the technology industry that creates wireless personal area networks (WPAN) would be inspired by the life of a bee. The name ZigBee comes from the zigzag dance that worker bees use to communicate about the location of nectar. How appropriate, because communicating in a zigzag pattern is exactly what ZigBee does. In this case, however, the zigzag pattern is created from the sporadically placed sensors sending and receiving bits of information.
ZigBee is not just one major corporation trying to take over and dominate the market. It is known as the ZigBee Alliance, and is uniquely made up of over 175 different companies spanning 29 countries and 6 continents. It has 8 major promotor companies: Chipcon, Ember, Freescale, Honeywell, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Philips and Samsung. This association promotes a wireless network that is reliable, cost-effective and energy efficient based on an open global standard. Companies of all sizes and fields are able to collaborate and contribute ideas about the systems strengths, and what parts can be improved upon based off their own personal experience.
ZigBee’s Focus
With its unique emphasis on reliability, low-cost, long battery life and easy deployment, ZigBee is paving the way for intelligent sensors to provide greater control of lighting, heating, cooling, water filtration, appliance-use and security systems from anywhere in and around the home.
One of ZigBee’s main focuses, aside from creating a quality form of communication you can rely on, is creating highly efficient sensors that require virtually no maintenance. They found a way that each individual sensor would use little to no battery power, thus maintaining its lifespan to 10 plus years. This ensures two things: first, it keeps the sensors cost friendly by preventing large consumptions of power and expensive battery changing fees; second, it prevents sensors from being out of service simply because their battery died. Low power consumption on the networks part assures that choosing ZigBee for your wireless network is going to be a cost friendly choice.
The company’s simple slogan, “Wireless communication that just works” targets what everyone is looking for from his/her wireless network. All the other perks that go along with it, such as speed of data transfer, are nice, but the bottom line that makes one network better than another is the reliability that it will always work.
Technology and Range
ZigBee is based on and IEEE 802.15.4 wireless communication standard that has the capacity to support a massive network of approximately 65,000 devices. The rate of transfer speed is 250 kbps on an unlicensed radio frequency of 900MHz or 2.4GHz, depending on the size of the network. The signals will reach lengths of up to 50 feet, and can easily be increased by adding a range-extender device. ZigBee may not be the fastest option out there, but it is one of the only networks able to reliably support a massive amount of devices; being the fastest available network was sacrificed for strength and durability.
One of the ways that ZigBee is able allow each battery sensor to consume low levels of energy is due to the low-duty cycle they operate on. Typically, only short bits of information are transmitted through each sensor at a time. Since there are a number of different sensors spread throughout a home or business, the amount each one is used is greatly reduced. It would be unnecessary for every single sensor to be on and operating all the time. Therefore, each sensor is programmed to enter into a power-save sleep mode when it is not sending or receiving any signals.
ZigBee is a mesh network. A multi-hop mesh network offers full redundancy through multiple data paths and eliminates the single point of failure scenario. Devices on a home network would find the nearest available path to transmit data. Should a signal encounter a closed path, that signal would automatically seek out the closest open sensor and communicate its action. Self-healing networks are vital to connect people with limited mobility, those in need of special care, and those with personal health monitoring devices to emergency services. The more sensors you add the stronger your network is going to be. Think of each additional sensor as an opportunity for a signal to make it to its destination regardless of interference.
Home Control
A ZigBee-enabled home network could involve a single device to turn off a light switch without getting out of bed, or numerous devices that could act independently or work together to accomplish a series of actions. For example, using a cell phone or PDA to signal your arrival home – the network would recognize that a new device has joined the network triggering the lights to turn on, the security system to disengage, the garage door to open and the heating or cooling system to adjust to a predefined comfort level while previously set to conserve energy when no one was home.
ZigBee is able to really give you complete home control with the touch of a button. You have power over all home appliances, and gain more control of what happens in and around their home. With greater automation of home-control systems, homeowners can adjust their environment to run more efficiently. Sensors built into garden irrigation systems will read water levels and self-adjust to turn off or on depending on the water level reading of the soil around a home. Perimeter lighting will adapt to turn on earlier as winter days get shorter and adjust back as summer days get longer. Or, while you’re at work you can set your dishwasher, washer, or dryer to run during the day when energy consumption is at its lowest. ZigBee has virtually made endless possibilities when it comes to what you can do in terms of automation and home security.
.
Questions of a Do It Yourself nature should be submitted to our
"