Why do so many smart home manufacturers use ZigBee technology to make products?

In the past two years, people concerned about the smart home industry will find a phenomenon. Open the official website of major manufacturers, there will be ZigBee technology introduction, as if the smart home products do not have the same market as ZigBee. So why are so many smart home manufacturers using ZigBee technology to make products? Let's analyze together.

Let us first introduce the ZigBee protocol. ZigBee is a low-power LAN protocol based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard (2.4 Ghz band) and is a short-range, low-power wireless communication technology. It is also not a fresh product. As early as 2004, the Zigbee Alliance was established. "ZigBee" comes from ZigZag and is a body language of bees, so ZigBee has also become a "Zigbee protocol."

Many smart home manufacturers use ZigBee technology to make products, in fact, the most important thing is that it is simple and efficient. The ZigBee protocol works at a lower rate of 20 to 250 kbps, but is sufficient to meet the low-speed transmission needs of smart homes. Compared with the point-to-point transmission mode of Bluetooth, ZigBee protocol has the advantage of ad hoc network capabilities and supports up to 65,000 devices. For smart homes, the ZigBee protocol has a valuable advantage that it has high security. There has not been a global cracking precedent.

So, why are so many smart home manufacturers using ZigBee technology to make products? For more and more manufacturers to use ZigBee to do smart home, in fact, depends on many smart hardware is not connected to the wire. For example, an ordinary remote controller uses a battery and can last for more than 2 years. Can achieve such a long battery life, certainly can not be separated from low-power sensors and transmission protocols. For a small, IoT device with a non-fixed installation location, using Wi-Fi is naturally not feasible for longevity. Although the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology was introduced from Bluetooth 4.0, Bluetooth has obvious shortcomings: the connection devices are limited (in theory, 7 devices) and cannot be self-organized, so for the purpose of building a smart home system, At the same time, large-scale smart home manufacturers who need a large number of smart devices work, Bluetooth is certainly not enough.

From the above analysis, it seems that only the ZigBee and Z-Wave protocols can be selected. Why do so many smart home manufacturers use ZigBee technology to make products? Although Z-Wave has the characteristics of simple structure and reliable performance, it is still difficult to obtain the authorization of the Z-Wave chip. The key point is that the frequency band used by Z-Wave (865.2MHz-956MHz) is non-civilian in China. Therefore, for China's smart home companies, the ZigBee protocol is more suitable for domestic use. Selecting the ZigBee protocol must be a result of deep thinking.

Through these introductions, why so many smart home manufacturers use ZigBee technology to do the product, the reason is to take a look at its low-power, ad hoc network, high security advantages. We believe that through continuous research and development, domestic smart home manufacturers will certainly provide consumers with more and better smart home products.