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TechOnLine Publication Date: May 6

ZigBee: Wireless Technology for Low-Power Sensor Networks

Gary Legg

Technologists have never had trouble coming up with potential applications for wir
sensors. In a home security system, for example, wireless sensors would be much e
to install than sensors that need wiring. The same is true in industrial environments
where wiring typically accounts for 80% of the cost of sensor installations. And the
there are applications for sensors where wiring isn't practical or even possible.

The problem, though, is that most wireless sensors use too much power, which mea
that their batteries either have to be very large or get changed far too often. Add to
some skepticism about the reliability of sensor data that's sent through the air, and
wireless sensors simply haven't looked very appealing.

A low-power wireless technology called ZigBee is rewriting the wireless sensor

equation, however. A secure network technology that rides on top of the recently ra
IEEE 802.15.4 radio standard (Figure 1), ZigBee promises to put wireless sensors
everything from factory automation systems to home security systems to consumer
electronics. In conjunction with 802.15.4, ZigBee offers battery life of up to severa
years for common small batteries. ZigBee devices are also expected to be cheap,
eventually selling for less than $3 per node by some estimates. With prices that low
should be a natural fit even in household products like wireless light switches, wire
thermostats, and smoke detectors.

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Figure 1: ZigBee adds network, security, and application-services layers to

the PHY and MAC layers of the IEEE 811.15.4 radio

Although no formal specification for ZigBee yet exists (approval by the ZigBee
Alliance, a trade group, should come late this year), the outlook for ZigBee appears
bright. Technology research firm In-Stat/MDR, in what it calls a "cautious aggress
forecast, predicts that sales of 802.15.4 nodes and chipsets will increase from essen
zero today to 165 million units by 2010. Not all of these units will be coupled with
ZigBee, but most probably will be. Research firm ON World predicts shipments of
million wireless sensor RF modules by 2010, with 77% of them being ZigBee-rela

In a sense, ZigBee's bright future is largely due to its low data rates—20 kbps to 25
kbps, depending on the frequency band used (Figure 2)—compared to a nominal 1
for Bluetooth and 54 Mbps for Wi-Fi's 802.11g technology. But ZigBee won't be
sending email and large documents, as Wi-Fi does, or documents and audio, as
Bluetooth does. For sending sensor readings, which are typically a few tens of byte
high bandwidth isn't necessary, and ZigBee's low bandwidth helps it fulfill its goal
low power, low cost, and robustness.

Figure 2: ZigBee's data rates range from 20 kbps to 250 kbps, depending on
the frequency used

Because of ZigBee applications' low bandwidth requirements, a ZigBee node can s

most of the time, thus saving battery power, and then wake up, send data quickly, a
back to sleep. And, because ZigBee can transition from sleep mode to active mode
msec or less, even a sleeping node can achieve suitably low latency. Someone flipp
ZigBee-enabled wireless light switch, for example, would not be aware of a wake-
delay before the light turns on. In contrast, wake-up delays for Bluetooth are typic
around three seconds.

A big part of ZigBee's power savings come from the radio technology of 802.15.4,
which itself was designed for low power. 802.15.4 uses DSSS (direct-sequence spr

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spectrum) technology, for example, because the alternative FHSS (frequency-hopp

spread spectrum) would have used too much power just in keeping its frequency ho
synchronized.

ZigBee nodes, using 802.15.4, can communicate in any of several different ways,
however, and some ways use more power than others. Consequently, ZigBee users
necessarily implement a sensor network any way they choose and still expect the
multiple-year battery life that is ZigBee's hallmark. In fact, some technologists wh
planning very large networks of very small wireless sensors say that even ZigBee i
power hungry for their uses.

A ZigBee network node can consume extra power, for example, if it tries to keep it
transmissions from overlapping with other nodes' transmissions or with transmissio
from other radio sources. The 802.15.4 radio used by ZigBee implements CSMA/C
(carrier sense multiple access collision avoidance) technology, and a ZigBee node t
uses CSMA/CA is essentially taking a listen-before-talk approach to see if any rad
traffic is already underway. But, as noted by Venkat Bahl, marketing vice presiden
sensor company Ember Corp. and vice chairman of the ZigBee Alliance, that's not
preferred approach. "Having to listen burns power," says Bahl, "and we don't like t
that."

Another ZigBee and 802.15.4 communications option is the beacon mode, in which
normally sleeping network slave nodes wake up periodically to receive a synchroni
"beacon" from the network's control node. But listening for a beacon wastes power
particularly because timing uncertainties force nodes to turn on early to avoid miss
beacon.

In-Your-Face Communication
To save as much power as possible, ZigBee employs a talk-when-ready communi
strategy, simply sending data when it has data ready to send and then waiting for an
automatic acknowledgement. According to Bob Heile, who is chairman of both the
ZigBee Alliance and IEEE 802.15, talk-when-ready is an "in-your-face" scheme,
one that's very power efficient. "We did an extensive analysis that led to the best po
saving strategy in various kinds of environments from quiet to noisy," Heile says. "
discovered that, hands down, we were better off just sending the packet and
acknowledging it. If you don't get an ack, it just means you got clobbered, so send
again. You wind up having much better power management than if you listen and
determine if it's quiet before you talk."

Fortunately, this in-your-face strategy leads to very little RF interference. That's la

because ZigBee nodes have very low duty cycles, transmitting only occasionally an
sending only small amounts of data. Other ZigBee nodes, as well as Wi-Fi and
Bluetooth modules, can easily deal with such small, infrequent bursts.

ZigBee's talk-when-ready scheme doesn't suit all purposes, however. For example
network of thousands of tiny sensors dropped into a war zone to monitor enemy tro

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movements, the power savings provided still might not be enough. With each netw
node sending data periodically—and with transmissions repeated numerous times
through other nearby nodes of a mesh network configuration in order to reach a net
controller—large numbers of packet collisions and retransmissions could waste pow
and significantly shorten sensor node battery life. If the sensor batteries are very sm
and power-limited, that's especially problematic.

Although contention for airwave access isn't generally a problem for ZigBee, it can
Sensor-network company Dust Networks, in fact, says contention issues are keepin
company from turning to ZigBee—for now, at least—even though Dust remains a
member of the ZigBee Alliance. "Each ZigBee device needs to contend for airspac
its neighbors," says Dust director of product management Robert Shear, "so there's
inevitably some contention and some inefficiency." To avoid ZigBee's access conte
Dust uses contention-free TDMA (time division multiple access) technology. ZigB
through the 802.15.4 MAC layer, provides guaranteed time slots in a scheme that
somewhat resembles TDMA, but only as part of an optional "superframe" that's mo
complex and less power-efficient than TDMA.

ZigBee has still more power-saving tricks up its sleeve, however. For example, it
reduces power consumption in ZigBee components by providing for power-saving
reduced-function devices (RFDs) in addition to more capable full-function devices
(FFDs). Each ZigBee network needs at least one FFD as a controller, but most netw
nodes can be RFDs (Figure 3). RFDs can talk only with FFDs, not to other RFDs,
they contain less circuitry than FFDs, and little or no power-consuming memory.

Figure 3: ZigBee networks can contain as many as 65,536 nodes in a variety

of configurations

ZigBee conserves still more power by reducing the need for associated processing.
Simple 8-bit processors like an 8051 can handle ZigBee chores easily, and ZigBee
protocol stacks occupy very little memory. An FFD stack, for example, needs abou

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kbytes, and an RFD stack needs only about 4 kbytes. Those numbers compare with
250 kbytes for the far more complex Bluetooth technology.

From ZigBee's relatively simple implementations, cost savings naturally accrue. RF

of course, reduce ZigBee component costs by omitting memory and other circuitry
simple 8-bit processors and small protocol stacks help keep system costs down. Of
application's main processor can easily bear the small additional load of ZigBee
processing, making a separate processor for ZigBee functions unnecessary.

But the main strategy for keeping ZigBee prices low is to have big markets and hig
volumes. The ZigBee Alliance, by making ZigBee an open standard and by vigorou
promoting interoperability among ZigBee devices, expects that ZigBee will be very
in applications such as home and building automation. The alliance is currently wo
on interoperability procedures for those particular applications, which it expects to
complete later this year along with ZigBee Specification 1.0.

One reason for optimism about ZigBee adoption for home automation and security
ease of use. ZigBee networks are self-forming, making it easy even for consumers
them up. "In the residential space, there's no configuration involved," says the ZigB
Alliance's Heile. "You take something out of the box, put the batteries in, and mayb
something as simple as button-press security—bring two devices close together, pu
buttons until the green lights come on, and you're done."

ZigBee networks can also self-form in commercial and industrial settings, but
professional installers will have tools that provide additional control, particularly fo
security. ZigBee security is flexible, says Heile, to give both consumer and profess
users what they need. "You don't have to have 128-bit public-key encryption for a
smoke detector," he says, "but if I'm in a high-rise office complex, that's exactly th
level of security I'm going to have for my fluorescent light fixtures. If you're in a h
rise building on Fifth Avenue, you don't want someone going down the street and
turning your lights off."

Proprietary Competition
Competition for ZigBee comes almost entirely from proprietary technologies. Sens
company Dust, as noted, is sticking with its own technology, and Ember, although
pushing strongly into the ZigBee arena, plans to keep offering its proprietary Embe
as well. In addition, Zensys is providing its Z-Wave technology to customers. Sylv
for example, is already using Z-Wave for lighting control, while ZigBee systems r
at least several months away.

By offering interoperability, however, ZigBee adds capabilities that proprietary pro

can't. For example, says Ember's Bahl, interoperability allows the ZigBee nodes of
lighting system to work with the ZigBee network of an HVAC system, or vice vers
"Philips Lighting is really excited about this," Bahl, says, "because it turns them fro
ballast manufacturer into the infrastructure backbone of a building-automation sys

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Needless to say, many of the major semiconductor companies, and especially those
are big in embedded systems, are eagerly anticipating ZigBee's entry into mass mar
Freescale Semiconductor (until recently known as Motorola's Semiconductor Produ
Sector) is already providing ZigBee-ready technology to select customers. Other
semiconductor companies, including AMI, Atmel, Microchip, Philips, and Renesas
members of the ZigBee Alliance.

ZigBee will likely be slow to penetrate the industrial market for wireless sensors,
however. According to market research firm ON World, it will take five to seven y
to convince industrial customers of the reliability, robustness, and security of wirel
sensor systems. ON World does predict significant long-term growth of ZigBee in
industry, though. By 2010, the company projects, RF modules used in industrial
monitoring and control will reach 165 million units, up from 1.9 million in 2004. A
75% of those, ON World predicts, will be based on ZigBee and 802.15.4.

Eventually, ZigBee could go into a wide variety of applications. In household

appliances, it could help monitor and control energy consumption. In automotive
applications, it could provide tire-pressure monitoring and remote keyless entry. Z
could also be used in medical devices or even in computer peripherals, such as wire
keyboards or mice.

Concern is increasing, though, that ZigBee could turn into a one-size-fits-all

technology that doesn't fit any application particularly well. Some skeptics, for exa
worry that an attempt to make ZigBee all-encompassing could make the ZigBee
protocol stack too large for ZigBee's twin goals of very low power consumption an
low cost. If that happens, then ZigBee's low-power, low-data-rate niche—narrow
is—will have proven to be too broad. And then, perhaps, we'll need yet another wir
standard to go with the burgeoning number we already have.

About the Author

Gary Legg is a Boston-based freelance writer. He holds a BSEE degree and is a fo
editor and executive editor of EDN magazine. He can be reached at gary@garylegg

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