ZigBee home automation is a new development in home automation technology. Allowing you to control lighting, thermostat, and other electrical appliances from one central location. You can automate basic tasks like turning out lights and switching on and off devices.
Many of the basic tasks we use these days like paying bills, booking travel, booking a call to your bank all through your smartphone without needing to type anything. And now ZigBee technology is making this possible for your home as well.
If you’re looking to automate your home using Zigbee, there are a lot of things to consider. I’ve been experimenting with it for a few months and wanted to share my findings and opinions – particularly what you need to be aware of – in the hope that it helps you out.
Zigbee Home Automation – 5 key points
1. Low-power, low-speed wireless protocol for home automation
- It supports up to 16 devices per network, and each device has a 64-bit unique address.
- Devices periodically broadcast their addresses, and other devices listen for these addresses. When a device receives an address, it sends a response to that address, broadcasting a 4-byte response.
- Devices support both unicast and broadcast messages, which means that a device can send a message to one specific device (unicast) or broadcast a message to every device (broadcast). Broadcast messages are more efficient than unicast messages, but take longer to send.
- It also must be within 50 meters of each other to communicate, so you can’t deploy a ZigBee network in a rural area.
- Finally you can’t use them in industrial applications.
2. ZigBee home automation with multiple sensors and devices can communicate with one another
Communication and Security. Those are the two key value propositions offered by the ZigBee wireless standard, and each one is compelling in its own way.
Communication
These devices can individually send 802.15.4 data packets of up to 160 bytes to nearby Zigbee devices. These gather the data into larger packets and forward them to a central hub. The protocol standards enable devices from different manufacturers to communicate with each other.
Security
The devices use 128-bit AES encryption to communicate, and standard security protocols ensure the data sent and received is secure. ZigBee devices can also communicate with ZigBee-compatible devices. These include thermostats, light switches, and burglar alarms.
3 main components of ZigBee devices
Also, ZigBee devices have three main components: a central controller, one or more sensors, and one or more transceivers.
- The central controller manages all the Zigbee devices in an area and coordinates their communications. The controller receives Zigbee packets from the sensors and transmits data packets to other devices in the network.
- The sensors are the primary communication devices in Zigbee networks. They receive data from other devices and transmit it to the central controller.
- The transceivers enable ZigBee devices to communicate wirelessly.
3. Uses small packet transmissions to save battery power
Zigbee is a technology standard that has been around for about six years. It’s used in a wide range of consumer devices, including wireless home security systems, baby monitors, and CCTV systems.
ZigBee’s big advantage is low power consumption — The devices typically consume 5 to 10 percent of the power used by Wi-Fi devices. ZigBee transmitters use radio signals to communicate.
The zigbee automation standard defines several channels, each with a dedicated frequency. Each channel has a 40-MHz bandwidth, which means each signal occupies about 16 bits. It uses four of those bits — one byte — to send a message. The devices can send messages to each other over distances of about 100 meters.
ZigBee’s low power consumption and range make it a good fit for battery-powered devices.
Most chips support two data formats: ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) and binary.
- ASCII data consists of short strings of text, each consisting of between 1 and 255 characters.
- The binary format consists of a fixed-size packet of data, with each packet containing 8,192 bits, or 16 bytes.
4. Security measurements and protocols
ZigBee security is the most secure wireless networking technology available today.
ZigBee uses 128-bit AES encryption for confidentiality, and a secure authentication mechanism to ensure only authorized devices can communicate with each other. It’s easy to enroll devices over a wireless network, either manually or automatically. So retailers can add new devices to their stores without getting help from the IT department.
ZigBee’s security features also help prevent fraudulent transactions from taking place. For example, ZigBee’s tamper detection detects when a device has been altered, so retailers can shut down that device and notify customers of the issue.
ZigBee security is the most secure wireless networking technology available today.
5. Fastest installation
ZigBee is quickly becoming the preferred wireless technology for smart homes. And for good reason.
It’s fast and easy to use, and it’s compatible with a wide range of smart devices. That makes it perfect for households with a wide range of needs.
Consumers and professionals both consider ZigBee to be the easiest and fastest in terms of installation.
Most major appliance manufacturers like LG and Samsung now include ZigBee compatibility in their smart products. An increasing number of lighting manufacturers are including ZigBee compatibility in their products, too.
Almost all smart home hubs and devices come with ZigBee right out of the box, and you don’t need any additional hardware or software to get started.
Final Thoughts on zigbee home automation
Home Automation refers to systems, technologies, and products that integrate technologies to provide users convenient control over various devices.
Home automation systems allow users to control lights and appliances remotely. They most often use wireless communications, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or ZigBee.
Zigbee home automation is a newer technology. It is rapidly becoming the preferred wireless technology for smart homes, as it has numerous advantages. It uses 2.4GHz radio frequencies to communicate, and the devices can be grouped in a network under a master controller. The communication between controllers and devices is managed either locally or through the Internet.
