What is Applications of Zigbee

ZigBee is the most popular industry wireless mesh networking standard
for connecting sensors,instrumentation and control systems.ZigBee provides several benefits just because it is an industry standard supported by multiple solution providers.ZigBee solutions are
relatively inexpensive because several suppliers have already implemented ZigBee-based integrated circuits and modules in anticipation of high volumes for a standard solution.ZigBee-based solutions also offer users independence from any one supplier because one company’s ZigBee networking solution can be substituted for another’s.

Read << Part 1

There are several ways to solve parking problem in the downtown One of them is to manage parking efficiently, that is, to raise use-efficiency of parking place and to help drivers to select easily. When we manage the parking place m the block efficiently, It can prevent disproportion that some parking space is over capacity and the other parking one is under. It causes not only the disproportion of economic efficiency but also the congestion of local road. The precondition to manage parking efficiently is to analyse the parking characteristics.

The efficient Parking Management System is for convenence of drivers and efficient usage of parking space. Designed system is consisted of Client part that combines DB-Server part ZigBee that contain information of tag. It sends to server using ZigBee communication and server analyzed information that received from each Client. Server sends information that and fits in each Client circumstance. Each Client can compose Ad Hoc network with connection medium of Access Point by having voluntary sending out or receiving equipment.

Today,user perceptions about home automation have begun changing because of an influential wireless standard developed by a consortium called the Zig-Bee Alliance. ZigBee is a group comprised of international technology companies that work together to enable reliable, cost-effective, low-power, wirelessly networked,monitoring and control products based on an open global standard. The Alliance’s membership grows every day as international technology companies adopt and embed ZigBee technology in a wide range of products and applications.

As a result, ZigBee and its member companies have become a global market catalyst for wireless home automation. These companies’ collective efforts to develop flexible, mobile and easy-to-use solutions build wireless intelligence capabilities into everyday devices, drive down prices, and increase demand from residential, commercial and industrial markets.Companies use a standards-based wireless platform optimized for the unique needs of remote monitoring and control applications that addresses simplicity, reliability, low power and low cost. ZigBee defines the network, security and application software layers, provides interoperability and conformance testing specifications, and manages the evolution of the technology.In fact, industry experts believe ZigBee will change the way the average person thinks of controlling elements in the home.

A ZigBee-enabled house provides home automation capabilities, from the living room to the kitchen, from the home entertainment or home theater room to the bedroom, and from the garage to the bathroom. ZigBee products deliver whole home automation that creates “smart” home surfaces that allow you to customize your environment and create a seamless, interoperable experience where all devices “talk” to each other and can even connect to the Internet to enable remote access and control.ZigBee-enabled homes add the extra benefit of providing safety and protection for occupants and their assets through remote monitoring devices such as smoke detectors that trigger safety scenarios.

AD-HOC ON-DEMAND DISTANCE VECTOR ROUTING (AODV)‏

However, the AODV used in ZigBee is a little different to the AODV in ad hoc network. The latter one is based on the sequence number, which always chooses the newest routing. The AODV of ZigBee is based on the path loss. So we use Z-AODV to
represent the AODV of ZigBee for convenience.

Builds on DSDV algorithm and the improvement is on minimising the number of required broadcasts by creating routes on an on-demand basis (not maintaining a complete list of routes)‏

Broadcast is used for route request

Advantages: uses bandwidth efficiently, is responsive to changes in topology, is scalable and ensures loop free routing

Drawbacks: nodes use the routing caches to reply to route queries.

TREE ROUTING ALGORITHMS

The Tree Routing mechanism includes the configuration of tree addresses and tree addressing routing. When the coordinator establishes a new network, it will assign itself a network address 0 and a network depth of Depth0 = 0 . If node (i) wants to join in the network and associates with node (k), node (k) will become the father node of node (i). And then according to its own network address AK and network depth DepthK , node (k) will assign a network address Ai and a network depth of DepthK=Depthi+1  to node (i). The network depth means the hops from a node to the root node,  that is, the PAN coordinator of the network.

Future of ZigBee

Wireless communications is a mature industry that has been globally available for some time. However, in no way this means that market growth for mobile & wireless communications is showing growth fatigue. Contrary to the expected the growth is becoming more robust with passing time, continuous evolution and new innovations. This segment, once again is gearing up for unprecedented growth due to advancement in wireless broadband technologies, as well as emergence of innovative applications, business models and cheaper but powerful handsets. These new trends, with emergence of new technologies and players, are changing the industry landscape and creating many new and exciting opportunities in existing as well as unexplored market segments.

Stydying carefully the architecture of zigbee we have seen that ZigBee results in a lot higher radio activity for fulfilling the cost- and power-wise optimized sensor connectivity in mobile phones. Also it is more costly to integrate into mobile phones. Towards this end, Nokia decided to create a new open wireless protocol, and now, along with its partners Broadcom Corporation, CSR, Epson, and Nordic Semiconductor, is working to bring it to market.

The solution proposed was a new technology called WIBREE.

Wibree focuses on low power & low cost communications between mobile phones and small sensor devices, whereas ZigBee focuses on home and industry automation. The mobile phones will be more and more multiradio devices having several radios, many in 2.4 GHz, WiBree is cost- and power-wise optimized for sensor connectivity in this environment, whereas ZigBee results in a lot higher radio activity for fulfilling the same use case, and it is more costly to integrate into mobile phones.

In terms of peak power consumption, Wibree and Zigbee are roughly equal but due to the higher bit rate, Wibree results in better overall power consumption.

Both technologies offer extended battery life in exchange for a relatively low data transfer rate (1 Mb/s for Wibree and 0.25 Mb/s for ZigBee). ZigBee has a longer range (30 m or more as opposed to Wibree's 10 m range), but this only serves to illustrate the different potential markets of the two. ZigBee can help standardize different smart home technologies such as lighting and heating controls, blind, drapery, and shade controls, and even home appliances such as TVs, DVDs, microwaves, and ovens. Range is less important to Wibree, which is more oriented towards small, low power consumer products such as mobile phones, watches, and input devices, such as mouse and keyboards, as well as toys. The only potential market where the two technologies might compete directly is the medical and sport sensor market; alternatively, both Wibree and ZigBee networks could work side-by-side in different applications over the next few years.

Conclusion

The main features of zigbee were analyzed and it was concluded that zigbee is an emerging technology suitable for building smart homes and industry automation and applications that need low cost, better latency and low power consumption.
Zigbee sits below Bluetooth in terms of data rate ie 250 kbps at 2.4 GHz compared to bluetooth’s 1 Mbps . So an attempt was made to increase the data rate so that zigbee stands above all the other technologies but it was observed that we can increase the data rate only at the cost of its range , power consumption or its overall cost.So a better compromise would be to reduce the range to an appropriate level and then increase its rate.

Moreover we realized that zigbee is not a cost effective solution for mobile phones  as compared to Bluetooth. So its use is restricted in mobile phones and a new technology called wibree is now being proposed for mobile systems. Also zigbee is not compatible with Bluetooth technology whereas wibree technology can readily be used in mobile  systems with Bluetooth technology.
Both Wibree and ZigBee networks could work side-by-side in different applications over the next few years.

It is expected that in 4-5 years of time there can be 50  zigbee devices per home.