ARC Advisory Group has issued a new strategy report, "ZigBee in a Nutshell: How Suitable for Industrial Applications?" This report explains what ZigBee is and why a new technology like ZigBee will be needed in future wireless sensor networks. It also examines each major component of ZigBee (ZigBee's overall architecture, application environment, network layer and security). The report continues with an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of ZigBee in industrial applications and with recommendations for industrial manufacturers and product developers.

The report says that manufacturing end-users see a huge potential value in wireless devices, but will only make large deployments of products when they are based on standards. Reliance on standards assures better radio frequency coexistence, multiple sources of supply and predictable performance as deployments scale up.

According to ARC Advisory Group, developers of products and solutions for the industry are now choosing from among several wireless technologies. Their menu of technology choices consists of IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15.4 (either with or without ZigBee), Bluetooth, and even further off wireless technologies such UWB. Among these radio technologies, only 802.15.4 has the property of very low power consumption that long-lived battery-powered industrial products will require. Most industrial applications will deploy at least some fraction of battery-powered devices. As a result, the question on the table today in many industrial development and deployment roadmaps is: to ZigBee or not to ZigBee?

The report urges manufacturers to explore extensions beyond ZigBee for more RF agility, edge devices with higher network reliability, and other advanced services that benefit industrial devices and systems.