The idea of a fully connected home sounds like something from sci-fi, but Jetsons-esque smart homes have now been plucked from fiction and made a reality. But what makes a smart home, well, smart? All the gizmos and gadgets are good fun but they’re not much use if they can’t talk to each other. This is where fancy comms protocols like ZigBee come in.
These protocols, and the devices that use them, are catching like wildfire. The Global ZigBee Enabled Devices Market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 67.64 percent from now to 2018, with a huge portion of this growth due to take place in the next two years.
TechNavio analysts have broken down some of the need-to-knows of the ZigBee-enabled device market.
What the heck’s a ZigBee?
ZigBee is a communication protocol, based on the IEEE 802.15 standard, which uses low-power, low-cost digital radios to create personal area networks that can send and receive data over long distances. ZigBee-enabled devices create a mesh network (seen below) that doesn’t need a central control to work, thereby making them perfect for connected home use.
According to the ZigBee Alliance website, “ZigBee is the only standards-based wireless technology designed to address the unique needs of low-cost, low-power wireless sensor and control networks in just about any market. ZigBee also connects the widest variety of devices into easy-to-use networks, giving you unprecedented control of the devices you use every day.”
It differs from other wireless standards such as WiFi and Bluetooth, mostly in its application. ZigBee devices—anything from home security to heating and lighting controls to home entertainment systems— are generally used for monitoring and control, while WiFi connects users to the web and Bluetooth offers an alternative to cables.
Infographic courtesy of ZigBee Alliance
Major advantages of ZigBee
- Power-saving capability and extended battery life
This is relatively self-explanatory. The ZigBee specification defines a power-save mechanism that allows both controller devices and target devices to enter into a power save mode and manage their power consumption, which prolongs the battery life of devices.
- Open standard functionality
ZigBee works on an open standard, meaning that consumers get a lot of flexibility and choice. It provides a lot of interoperability so consumers don’t have to just look to a single manufacturer to ensure compatibility with devices.
- Data security
ZigBee specification offers a cryptographic mechanism to protect transmissions, as well as built-in security at the network layer.
- Multi-pairing capability
Typically, pairing takes place between a controller and target device, but ZigBee also allows for a variety of pairings, including one-to-one, many-to-one and many-to-many. This means that a controller can manage many related target devices, or a single target device can be managed by more than one controller.
- Two-way communication capability
This is where ZigBee really steps up. While controllers can obviously be used to control target devices, with ZigBee, target devices can also talk back and give information on the status of the device to the user.
Want to know more? For full details about this exciting market, including major trends and SWOT analysis for key vendors, check out our Global ZigBee Enabled Devices Market 2014-2018 report.
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