Open Source Zigbee Stack http://dev.emcelettronica.

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Open Source Zigbee Stack

By allankliu
Created 31/07/2008 - 11:39

BLOG Zigbee

Open the Source Code

Many RF technologies are competing on 2.4GHz. The

WLAN and Bluetooth have dominated the consumer
wireless market. Zigbee is getting hotter in the mesh
network application as well. More and more chip vendors
have released their new products for Zigbee. TI/Chipcon,
Freescale, Microchip, Atmel, Slilabs and Amber are active
in Zigbee market. Zigbee is a wireless mesh network; its
initial investment is much higher than an individual
microcontroller based application. A serious development
on a Zigbee project must include ICs, the Zigbee stack,
the application software in the network nodes and the
network administration software for the control terminals.

In September 2007, TI announced that it opened its fully

functional Zigbee stack, Z-stack to the developers. Every
registered developer can download the source code from the web site for free of charge. It was a
shock to this market. Before this open source promotion, the quotation of this certificated
Z-Stack source code was 100K USD.

Z-Stack can be downloaded in two formats: a "core" stack installer or a "full" stack installer. The
"core" installer is targeted to experienced Z-Stack users who only need updated library and
source files. The "full" installer is intended for users who would like additional application
examples.

Z-Stack has two releases. One release is Zigbee 2007 (Zigbee PRO), which is available for
CC2520+MSP430 microcontroller. The other release is Zigbee 2006, which supports
CC2420+MSP430 microcontroller and 80C51 based SoC CC2430/2431. IAR C/C++ is the
preferred compiler for both releases. The developer can download 30-day IAR compiler for free
of charge. It is a fully functional compiler. A 30-day evaluation license for the Sensor Network
Analyzer from Daintree is available to new users. In order to use the Daintree Sensor Network
Analyzer (SNA) software, a packet sniffer compliant hardware module is needed. the SNA
software works with hardware included in the CC2520DK, CC2430(Z)DK, and CC2431(Z)DK.

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TI and its partners have offered everything for free of charge, at least in 30 days. As a result, you
can simply order a Zigbee starter kit and start the project. In principle, the source can be ported
to other platforms if you want. The Zigbee 2006 for CC2430/2431 is relatively easier to port to
the other 8051 microcontrollers and compilers (like Keil?).

As same as TI, Microchip also offers its free downloadable Zigbee stack on its site. This Zigbee
stack has three versions for PIC18, PIC24 and dsPIC33. I inspected the code. The software
from Microchip [1] is much simpler than the counterpart from TI, and with some limitations.
Obviously, TI's stack is much better than Microchip's.

Zigbee is not popular enough, why?

The ecosystem of Zigbee is different than Bluetooth. Most of the Bluetooth products are
consumer electronics. The application profiles are well defined. These Bluetooth devices have
been tested and certificated for interoperability. The Zigbee products are designed for the
industrial or business applications, from AMR/AMI to access control. The application profiles of
Zigbee have not been defined as well as Bluetooth SIG did. Most of the customers of Zigbee are
the system integrators for certain projects, instead of the consumer electronics manufacturers for
Bluetooth. These SIs only care about if their project can run or not, rather than the device
interoperability.

A fully functional Zigbee requires 40KB ROM in the 8-bit microcontrollers. Actually some of these
projects are using proprietary protocols, which only take about 4KB ROM. All of the silicon
suppliers are also offering proprietary RF protocols as alternative solutions. TI has SimpliciTI,
and Microchip has MiWi, and Amber and Freescale have their own protocols. Obviously, some
of the wireless applications need extreme low cost P2P protocol to reduce the BOM cost. The
CE giant, SONY uses Freescale' Zigbee as RF remote control for its LCD TVs. They did not use
the standard Zigbee protocol. Of course, a simple P2P protocol is good enough for a TV set. The
legacy consumer IR remote control is even a one-way communication product.

If there are no standard products in the market, how can Zigbee be popular? Up to now, the
most promising Zigbee application is AMR, the metering market. The mesh network can not be
widely deployed in the home. Home automation is not a big market. The X-10 has proved this
point for years. Zigbee can only be deployed in building automation, security surveillance
systems and RFID systems in offices and workshops. The mesh network is too complex for the
consumer electronics.

After all, now Zigbee is available for every system integrators. The development effort and
investment are reduced because of the open source stack and free tools. More and more
features including OTA download, voice message and static picture delivery have been
demonstrated on Zigbee. You can unleash yourself in wireless applications. They free the
source, you free yourself.

Trademarks

Source URL: http://dev.emcelettronica.com/open-source-zigbee-stack

Links:

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[1] http://datasheet.emcelettronica.com/microchip

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