Within this article, we will explore the question of what is behind the term Zigbee, what Zigbee is used for and what advantages and disadvantages the use of Zigbee offers. We will try to keep the term as profound as necessary, but as understandable as possible.
What is Zigbee?
Zigbee is basically a specification for wireless networks which have a low data volume and are dependent on a low power consumption. The ZigBee Alliance developed the low-power wireless protocol ZigBee starting in 2002, which works in parallel to Bluetooth or WLAN and is therefore the same. The association now includes more than 230 companies, including Osram, Somfy, Samsung, Amazon and Ikea. This means that Zigbee can be used as a specification/protocol to send and receive data over short distances. The focus of this communication protocol is on sending "text messages" and status messages over maximum distances of 100m indoors and up to 300m outdoors. The low energy consumption allows even battery operated devices to maintain a radio connection over a longer period of time. This makes Zigbee an ideal communication standard for smarthome devices such as light bulbs, pushbutton switches, motion detectors, etc.
Three device types are defined within the Zigbee specification:
- End device
- Router
- Coordinator
The special feature of Zigbee is the automatic creation of a mesh network. Mesh network means that devices with sufficient power (e.g. devices which are not connected to a battery) can connect in the background to several devices at the same time and thus not only act as a terminal device, but also as an exchange (called router). A device which is very far away from the base station can still be used by means of this router in the middle. A terminal is thus exclusively a consumer and connects to either a coodinator or a router. A router is at the same time an end device and additionally an exchange in the middle of the network. A router thus extends the range similar to a WLAN repeater. A coordinator, on the other hand, is the device that is connected to the Internet via LAN cable, for example, and feeds commands from your smartphone into the Zigbee mesh network.
Advantages of Zigbee
We have already mentioned the two major advantages. First, communication via Zigbee is energy efficient and second, it is a specification that can extend the range without any intervention. Both advantages contribute to the fact that Zigbee is ideally suited for the use in Smarthome devices. Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that Zigbee is open source code and therefore available to everyone. Manufacturers are therefore completely free to implement additional functions in their products.
Disadvantages of Zigbee
The range of Zigbee devices is in reality limited to 10-15m, but if you have enough Zigbee sockets in use, you can use them as routers. Another disadvantage is that the Zigbee network has to be set up parallel to possibly already existing WLAN networks. This means that at least one coordinator is always needed in the network to feed commands from the Internet into the Zigbee network.