Microwave Engineering Europe - January/February 2008 - (Page 19)

WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS — ZigBee 19 The ZigBee PRO Feature Set: More of a good thing The ZigBee spec now includes two feature sets: ZigBee and ZigBee PRO. Both deﬁne key aspects of how a mesh network operates but ZigBee PRO’s feature set offers improved network scalability, resiliency, security, and ease-of-use, especially for larger, more complex networks. By Bob Gohn, Ember Corp. he ZigBee standard now stands along side Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as an established and critical wireless technology for an increasingly interconnected world. ZigBee’s ability to simply and reliably form self-conﬁguring, self-healing, mesh networks of low-cost, very low-power nodes is unique among these wireless standards. As a result, ZigBee has found widespread applications in home and building automation and new energy management systems that not only offer new conveniences but promise to contribute to solving some of society’s most pressing problems. T The ZigBee Alliance has recently introduced an important update to the ZigBee speciﬁcation leveraging the experience gained from the millions of ZigBee nodes deployed by multiple vendors since the speciﬁcation was ﬁrst published in 2004. The speciﬁcation now includes two distinct Feature Sets — “ZigBee” and “ZigBee PRO” — that deﬁne key aspects of how a mesh network operates. The new ZigBee PRO Feature Set offers signiﬁcant improvements in network scalability, resiliency, security, and ease-of-use, especially for larger, more complex networks. The ZigBee Feature Set is essentially the same as the 2006 version ZigBee speciﬁcation, with some new optional features adopted from the ZigBee PRO capabilities. Networks are generally built using one Feature Set or the other, though end devices implementing either Feature Set may operate in any ZigBee network. It is worth noting that with this update of the speciﬁcation, the focus of the ZigBee Alliance is shifting from further networking stack development toward expanding the higher-level Application Proﬁles, so users can be assured of continuing stability in the underlying standard. Microwave Engineering ● January/February 2008 ● www.mwee.com 019_020_021_022_MWEE.indd 19 24/01/08 11:13:57 http://www.spinner.de http://www.spinner.de http://www.mwee.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Microwave Engineering Europe - January/February 2008

Microwave Engineering Europe - January/February 2008 Contents News Comment Radio: Raising the Bar for the Radio: Making 802.11n Work Cover Feature: The RF-System-In-Package Trend - Efficient Design with Advanced Design System 2008 Wireless Sensor Networks: The Zigbee PRO Feature Set: More of a Good Thing Very Fast Measurements of Wireless Devices with Small Antennas in Reverberation Chambers WiMAX Update 2008 Bridging the Gap from the CMOS DSP to the Antenna in OFDM Systems Products Calendar

Microwave Engineering Europe - January/February 2008

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