There are so many wireless technologies out in the market today that one might think there is no need for another one. That the present standards are sufficient to connect consumers, industrial workers, office goers and others wirelessly, whether at home, in the office, on the factory floor, driving or flying, another standard would be overkill. But, ZigBee Alliance, an industry consortium working together to enable reliable, cost-effective, low-power, wirelessly networked monitoring and control products based on an open global standard thinks otherwise. A non-profit industry consortium of leading semiconductor manufacturers, technology providers, OEMs, and end-users worldwide, the ZigBee Alliance is rapidly growing. And industry market analysts project attractive growth for this wireless standard in home and industrial automation applications.

For instance, U.K.'s Cambridge Consultant Ltd. expects ZigBee-enabled products should start to appear before the year's end. However, CCL expects design trends to follow a similar path to the Bluetooth market, which only started to take off with the arrival of single chip solutions. Consequently, volume production will only commence when OEMs can deliver products based on single chip solutions. CCL's study shows that integrated system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution will enable complete ZigBee nodes to be built around $2.00 — a fraction of competing technologies. Because the radio has been designed specifically to occupy a small silicon area with efficient software code space, it offers a cost-effective approach to wireless networking solutions. Plus, it supports a large number of nodes and long-range communications without the expense of power amplifiers. In addition, its control system is lean. Together, ZigBee is expected to deliver wireless solutions that meet demanding cost and performance requirements of home and industrial automation OEMs.

On the home front, research firm ABI estimates that the home controls market could be about $4 billion by 2008. In the United States alone, U.S.-based networked home control revenues will approach nearly $900 million, according to ABI. With nearly 20 million shipments expected in 2008, residential gateways, progressively central to broadband-based home application management and distribution, will support home control system growth in U.S. homes. However, entering the market will not be as easy as it may seem. To penetrate the market, ZigBee must compete with other popular techniques such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and emerging ultra wideband (UWB), which are also gaining momentum. Each of these technologies will affect the home automation landscape by altering the way nodes are connected and share information, the ABI study indicates.

Similarly, another consulting firm, West Technology Research Solutions (WTRS), estimates that by 2008 there could be more than 300 million ZigBee chipsets shipped annually in the home automation segment alone. In the recent WTRS ZigBee market report and analysis, the study predicts that in the near future, it will be common to find as many as 100 ZigBee chips around the house. These will be found in light switches, fire and smoke detectors, thermostats, kitchen appliances, video and audio remote controls, landscaping and security systems. Similar principles and models also apply to networks in industrial, building automation and medical markets, the WTRS report says. In short, these wireless technologies present numerous methods to network home control systems such as lighting, security, HVAC, computing, entertainment and appliances.

By the end of 2004, the ZigBee Alliance expects to deliver the networking protocol specification and application profiles, built on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, to enable broad-based deployment of wireless networks. To ensure interoperability within these wireless networks, ZigBee recently held its first internal interoperability-testing event. Several member companies participated in the interoperability testing, which was conducted on two levels: the first was designed to test the 802.15.4 radio frequency (RF) functionality, specifically with the Physical Layer (PHY) and Media Access Control (MAC), and the second was designed to test ZigBee network functionality. Because the ZigBee Alliance has defined multivendor interoperability as a key objective to achieving reliability and ease-of-use for installers and consumers, this event marks a milestone in that effort. Aside from enabling factory monitor and control functions, Zigbee also offers an additional benefit. The ability to track and locate finished products as they move in and out of a facility. Intelligent, two-way Zigbee transceivers can provide the basis for locating items on the factory floor. But, time and users will tell if ZigBee will give other competing standards a tough time.

Please send your thoughts to abindra@primediabusiness.com