The next bluetooth!

Bluetooth is not the end of world. The engineers across the globe are working on solutions that can be customized according to user's needs. ZigBee is one such solution. ZigBee is the set of specs built around the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless protocol. The IEEE is the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. They are a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering technology involving electronics and electronic devices.

While Bluetooth focuses on connectivity between large packet user devices, such as laptops, phones, and major peripherals, ZigBee is designed to provide highly efficient connectivity between small packet devices. As a result of its simplified operations, which are one to two full orders of magnitude less complex than a comparable Bluetooth device, pricing for ZigBee devices is extremely competitive, with full nodes available for a fraction of the cost of a Bluetooth node.

The name "ZigBee" is derived from the erratic zigging patterns many bees make between flowers when collecting pollen. This is evocative of the invisible webs of connections existing in a fully wireless environment. The standard itself is regulated by a group known as the ZigBee Alliance, with over 150 members worldwide.

ZigBee devices are actively limited to a through-rate of 250Kbps, compared to Bluetooth's much larger pipeline of 1Mbps, operating on the 2.4 GHz ISM band, which is available throughout most of the world.

To know more about ZigBee, download the following presentations:

1. http://uploadingit.com/files/45642/ZigBee.ppt
2. http://uploadingit.com/files/45642/ZigBee(2).ppt