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

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.

Zigbee network security modes

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

WLAN    THREAD    EnOcean    LoRa    SIGFOX    WHDI   
Zigbee   6LoWPAN   Zigbee RF4CE   Z-Wave   NFC   RFID   INSTEON  

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