WCV FEATURE 2

Zigbee needs to make headway

Given the fanfare that the /UWB linkup received, the uninitiated could be fooled into thinking that the short-range market had consolidated overnight – leaving newcomers, such as Zigbee and a host of semi-proprietary technologies, on the very fringes of acceptability.

The BSIG, fresh from its UWB announcement, claimed that forthcoming improvements to the Bluetooth specification would make the technology much more applicable to the industrial automation and sensing market. The BSIG’s Anders Edlund said, “I think Zigbee will struggle to gain a foothold because Bluetooth is becoming so good that, in most cases, it does everything Zigbee can do for the same cost and power consumption. Given that Bluetooth is appearing in so many portable devices, cell phone, PDAs, etc., these portable device can be used for controlling other products, and I believe it will be difficult for Zigbee to achieve large volumes.”

Edlund stressed that the BSIG was keen to increase Bluetooth’s presence in the industrial automation segment, and pointed to the success the technology had already achieved with the installation in Russia by EKA Systems of a very large mesh network – an application area considered a key focus for Zigbee.

The image of Zigbee was further dented by a recent report published by BCC Research concerning the growing use of smart network devices in the US. The firm claimed that for automation of residential, industrial or business environments there were a number of ‘standards’ available – CeBus for , and BacNet and LonWorks for building controls and automation.

The report concluded that, in terms of technology protocols, LonWorks was expected to succeed over its rivals due to its greater flexibility and its wide applicability in industrial, residential and business environments. However, it also recognised that BacNet, CeBus and Zigbee would register positive usage and revenue growth.

On a more positive note, many of the larger Zigbee developers have been keen to stress that, unlike these competitors, the cell phone manufacturers are becoming more interested in Zigbee’s attributes. “We have been working very closely with many cell phone manufacturers about implementing Zigbee into numerous handsets,” says Brett Black, of Freescale Semiconductors. “There are several applications - such as controlling home automation devices using the handset, personal health monitoring and electronic ticketing, where Zigbee could play a vital role.”

Taking a swipe at Bluetooth, Black said that it was the only solution around at the time when cell phone manufacturers were looking for a connectivity technology. “If Zigbee had been available five years ago, then you would probably have seen the technology implemented in more cases than Bluetooth due to its low cost, network expandability and very low power consumption.”

While there is widespread consensus that almost every OEM is considering or implementing some form of wireless connectivity, Zigbee advocates are calling for a heightened awareness of the technology’s capabilities and a push to hasten the market launch of Zigbee-enabled products.

“There’s a lot of positive momentum at the moment for Zigbee, but I would perhaps suggest that the Zigbee Alliance should focus on the growing number of lower cost proprietary solutions that are appearing in the marketplace. We need to ensure that we get the Zigbee adoption rate up and see the developments by our customers into production,” concluded Black.