Zigbee vs WirelessHART-Difference between Zigbee and WirelessHART
This page compares Zigbee vs WirelessHART and mentions difference between Zigbee and WirelessHART technologies in tabular form.
Zigbee
Zigbee is a simple packet data protocol designed for light weight wireless networks. The PHY/MAC layers are defined in IEEE 802.15.4 specifications. Channel access in zigbee is via CSMA/CA. Zigbee network composed of Zigbee co-ordinator, zigbee router and zigbee end devices.
Zigbee operates at various frequency bands viz. 868MHz, 915MHz and 2.4 GHz. Out of these 2.4 GHz based zigbee products are very popular around the world. Based on antenna, transmitter output power and frequency it will cover about 10 to 100 meters. Zigbee supports mesh topology. Zigbee products delivers about 250Kbps of data rate. About 65000 devices are supported in a zigbee network.
Latest to zigbee standards is zigbee 3.0 version.
The zigbee 3.0 specification enables interoperability among different application profiles.
Due to this,
zigbee 3.0 allows devices from different application areas to communicate and form single homogeneous network.
For example, device#1
from zigbee light profile can coexist with device#2 from health care profile with same zigbee network.
Refer Zigbee tutorial➤ and
Zigbee 3.0 tutorial➤ for
more information.
WirelessHART
Following are the key features of WirelessHART technology:
• TDMA/CSMA based wireless mesh networking technology
• WirelessHART network consists of field devices, gateway, network manager, security manager and handheld devices.
• Uses 16 channels with 5MHz gap in 2.4GHz band.
• Supports 128 bit AES encryption.
Refer Article on WirelessHART basics➤.
The table below mentions difference between Zigbee and WirelessHART wireless technologies with respect to similarities and differences.
| Features | Zigbee | WirelessHART |
|---|---|---|
| Topology supported | Star and Mesh | Star and Mesh |
| Frequency Bands | 868/915 MHz, 2.4 GHz | 2.4 GHz |
| Standard | IEEE 802.15.4 | IEEE 802.15.4, HART comm. protocol |
| MAC mechanism | CSMA/CD | TDMA |
| Channel Hopping | Not supported | Supported |
| Ability to cope with very large networks | No | Yes |
| Latency and reliability determinism | No | Yes |
| Built-in security features | Yes | Yes |
| Wireless mesh routing | Supported | Supported |
| Data rate | 250 Kbps | 250 Kbps |
| Range | about 100 meters | about 100 meters |
| Power consumption | Low | Medium |
| Cost | Medium | Medium |
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