I reposted this article as it really shows a bit of the potential that is starting to unfold and rapidly gaining ground.
Avoiding Bluetooth's missteps
ZigBee backers are focusing on low-cost, low-power wireless networks
Russ Arensman -- Electronic Business, 3/1/2005
Supporters of the ZigBee wireless networking standard claim to have learned a few lessons from the missteps of another wireless rival, Bluetooth. "We looked critically at Bluetooth and learned a lot from that," says Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance, which represents 120 semiconductor, software and systems companies backing the new standard.
Heile, who is also chief technology officer for Appairent Technologies, vows that when the first ZigBee-certified products hit the market this year, they will work properly together, thanks to two years of careful development. Bluetooth, in contrast, was rushed to market with interoperability problems that took a year to resolve.
Bluetooth also used a proprietary radio initially developed by Ericsson, while ZigBee opted for IEEE 802.15.4, an existing radio standard. "We decided our value add [as a standards group] was going to be in creating the software, not the radio," says Heile.
ZigBee's backers have tried to avoid the hype that accompanied Bluetooth's launch, keeping a fairly low profile until their standard was ratified in December. They've also sought to keep ZigBee focused on its primary goal: providing low-cost, low-power wireless networking. Initial ZigBee devices should cost about $5, with prices eventually falling to less than $1.
Most alliance members are concentrating on building automation, where the technology's affordability and low power needs should help it win wide use in everything from security, lighting, heating and air conditioning systems to appliances, utility meters and industrial machinery.
Based on "mesh network" technology, ZigBee's transmitters and receivers detect each other's signals and organize connections between themselves, automatically expanding or contracting the network as new devices enter (assuming they are properly authorized) or leave the area. If some devices, or "nodes" are disabled or their signal is blocked, others adapt and find new routes to keep communicating. The technology's unusual name is derived from a similar adaptive pattern: the zigzag flight path of a bumblebee.
These self-adapting capabilities simplify network administration and make possible extremely complex networks. Big commercial buildings could ultimately use as many as 40,000 ZigBee nodes, he says, while home networks could have 100. Home users, for instance, might use a ZigBee sensor at every window or exterior door as part of a security system.
Harbor Research President Glen Allmendinger calls ZigBee "a significant long-term opportunity" for the electronics industry. "There hasn't been a standard to date that really addressed the issue of low data rate and low power consumption," he says.
Allmendinger says ZigBee networks could transform many industries by enabling smarter, real-time asset-management and supply chains. Food suppliers, for example, could use ZigBee technology to monitor the temperature of shipments. Building managers could save huge amounts of energy by using ZigBee to switch off lights and air-conditioning in unused rooms. "None of this is going to happen overnight," he concedes. "It definitely has to get validated and people have to get comfortable with it."
ABI Research estimates 1 million ZigBee devices will be shipped worldwide in 2005, climbing to 80 million in 2006. Harbor Research expects a more modest 400,000 ZigBee chip shipments in 2005, but expects a similarly fast growth trajectory, with 100 million units shipped in 2008 and more than 1 billion annually by the end of the decade.
ZigBee's recently approved technical specification includes a physical layer (PHY) and medium access controller (MAC) as well as network, security and application-services layers. One of its appeals is how simply all that is implemented in software. ZigBee requires one-eighth as much software code as Bluetooth and one-thirtieth that of WiFi (see chart, below). "We've been careful not to get caught up in scope creep," says Heile.
The early leader in ZigBee semiconductors is Ember, a fabless startup whose pre-standard chips are being used in most system makers' initial products. Others that have announced plans to or are already making ZigBee chips include Atmel, Chipcon, CrossBow, Freescale, Microchip, Oki and ZMD.
Venkat Bahl, Ember's vice-president of marketing, says his company is producing about 80,000 chips monthly, and is one of the few suppliers of both ZigBee hardware and software.
Numerous companies, including Airbee Wireless, Figure 8 Wireless and Helicomm are developing ZigBee software. On the systems side, vendors range from big players like Eaton, Honeywell, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Philips and Samsung to smaller specialists like Control 4 and Smarthome. Eaton, for instance, offers a home monitoring system that lets users remotely check whether doors and windows are open or lights and appliances turned off.
Heile expects Asian manufacturers to pursue the ZigBee market aggressively. He notes that 80 Chinese manufacturers showed up at a recent ZigBee event in Shenzhen, China. But at this point, it's too soon to predict who the leading ZigBee players will be. Says Heile: "It's going to be a real horse race."
AI
