Zigbee 3.0 tutorial | Zigbee 3.0 Protocol Stack,features
This Zigbee 3.0 tutorial covers Zigbee 3.0 features, Zigbee 3.0 protocol stack and mentions benefits of zigbee 3.0 in IoT (Internet of Things) applications.
About Zigbee 3.0:
The standard zigbee 3.0 is variation to previous zigbee standards.
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.
Moreover zigbee 3.0 compliant devices support connectivity with IP networks such as LAN and WAN. Hence these devices can form IoT network. Hence products from different manufacturers can communicate together as single networking devices. Zigbee 3.0 is based on IEEE 802.15.4 standard specifications and support 2.4 GHz global frequency band. It uses zigbee PRO version.
Following are the features of zigbee 3.0 :
• Low Power: Zigbee 3.0 compliant devices support low power and low data rate.
IoT devices require long life battery. Hence this standard is widely used in
IoT (Internet of Things) network.
• Reliable and Robust: The zigbee 3.0 supports mesh topology and hence such network will
avoid single point of failure and hence ensure reliable delivery of packets.
• Scalable: The devices can be added any time in zigbee 3.0 network.
• Secure: It supports AES-128 encryption type and hence it is secured network.
• Global Standard: The frequency band 2.4 GHz is used widely across the globe which is
used in zigbee 3.0 based devices. Hence it is a global standard.
From the above points one can easily derive difference between zigbee 3.0 and other versions of zigbee standard.
Refer Zigbee tutorial to understand about zigbee network
and its components.
Zigbee 3.0 Protocol Stack
The figure-1 depicts zigbee 3.0 protocol stack. As shown it consists of PHY, MAC, network and application layers. The changes have been incorporated into application layer in zigbee 3.0 compare to previous zigbee versions. Network layer is sandwitched between upper layer i.e. application layer and PHY/MAC as defined in IEEE 802.15.4 standard.
The zigbee 3.0 protocol stack incorporates zigbee base device layer which provides consistant behaviour for commissioning new nodes in the network.
The security layer is also enhanced and here there are two security modes
supported.
Centralized: This mode is managed by central co-ordinator.
This co-ordinator forms the network as well as
takes care of key assignment to the new joining nodes.
Distributed: This mode does not have any central co-ordinator.
The zigbee router itself manages network establishment and
key assignment to peer router in the network.
The figure-3 depicts zigbee network security modes.
• Zigbee 3.0 support large number of nodes about 250.
• It also supports dynamic nature of the network.
• It supports rejoining of orphaned nodes with the new
parent node in the event of loss of parent.
• Zigbee 3.0 provides backward compatibility with
other zigbee application profiles such as zigbee light link 1.0 profile,
zigbee home automation 1.2 profile etc.
what is zigbee 3.0 tutorial and zigbee products related links
IoT Wireless Technologies
RF Wireless Tutorials
What is Difference between
Refer following links for difference between zigbee and other wireless technologies/standards.
Difference between 802.11 standards viz.11-a,11-b,11-g and 11-n
CDMA vs GSM
WiMAX vs LTE
Bluetooth vs Zigbee
IrDA vs WLAN vs Bluetooth
WiMAX vs WLAN