Introduction to Zigbee Technology Applications
What is Zigbee? Based on its website, Zigbee is the wireless language that is used by devices every day in order to connect each other. Zigbee has a slogan. It says “Control your world”. That is pretty representative to what Zigbee technology can do for you. There are many good reasons why you should have Zigbee Technology Applications in your house which would be explained later.
Technical information of Zigbee
In detail, the definition of Zigbee is an IEEE 802.15.4-based specification that is used in high-level communication protocols. The purpose of those protocols is used to create personal area networks with low, and small-power digital radios.
Many people choose to have Zigbee rather than the other WPANs (wireless personal area networks), like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. It is because this technology can be used in low and small power and also it is much simpler and less expensive than those.
The Zigbee Technology Applications manage some technologies included light switching, electrical metering, system of traffic managing, and other consumer and industrial tools. Many of them are the ones that needs short-range and low-rate wireless data transfer.
Because of this Zigbee technology is used typically for low data rate applications, so it will have long battery life and the good security of network.
You can transmit long distance data with Zigbee devices by having it passed through a mesh network from intermediate ones for extensive distance. The low power consumption feature only works in limited transmission distances that is up to 100 meters sight line.
This Zigbee Technology Applications were conceived in 1998, and it was become standardized in 2003.
If you want to know the reason they choose to name this technology as Zigbee, that name is referred to the waggle dance which is figure-eight dance of the honey bee after their return to the hive. And to give you the clearer view about Zigbee technology applications, please refer to the following explanation.
Application of Zigbee Wireless Sensor Network in Smart Home System
Basically, Zigbee is designed for home automation. It can also be used on other environment but with some requirements. And for its controlling and signaling function, Zigbee use RF.
This technology was originally developed by the company called HomeRF Alliance. Zigbee is now managed by the Zigbee Alliance. With Zigbee Technology Applications, you can control your essential home appliances.
Zigbee Technology Applications lets you control and manage your house lighting from anywhere. For example, you can switch off the light in the living room right from inside of your bed room. Another example, you can turn on all the lights inside the house when you are about to open the door from the outside.
You can customize the levels of lighting according to your activity and the scenes you are created. Zigbee provides you with the internet connectivity that allows you to control devices from anywhere, anywhere in the world. With the internet connectivity, you can control your smart home, using only mobile phones.
More interestingly, Zigbee offers you an easy installation. You can actually install it yourself without any help from the technicians. This technology is ideal to be remodeling or newly constructed. The networks are self-organized which simplify the set-up and maintenance.
Application of Zigbee Sensor Network to Data Acquisition and Monitoring
Another one of zigbee technology applications is on data acquisition and monitoring. It can be a portable solution of the data acquisition and monitoring problems with wires.
In LabVIEW, Zigbee is regarded as the most popular and effective technology that is used in Wireless data acquisition and monitoring application. Hundreds of large and small companies are working to develop solutions to the wireless network. So, what is Data Acquisition (DAQ)?
Data acquisition is used to measure a physical and electrical phenomenon. It measures temperature, sound, voltage, current, or pressure. The data acquisition that is based on PC, uses the combination of a computer, with modular hardware, and application software in order to take measurements.
The data acquisition is defined by the requirements of application. So, data acquisition is all about signals, sensors, signal conditioning, data acquisition devices, actuators, and the software of application.
The Application of Zigbee Technology to the Intelligent Bus Query System
The use of Zigbee Technology Applications in public transportation is a good choice for many people. It is because this technology is more efficient and accurate than the others. More importantly, it’s also less expensive than other wireless technology.
Zigbee can be a good option for public transportation system compared to the traditional one. It would be the only solution if the internet connection, WIMAX, 3G, or other wireless system is unavailable.
Currently the Zigbee technology is commonly known to be used in the internal operation vehicle or application of a building. It would be a great idea to have Zigbee applied in inters vehicle technology. You can communicate from one vehicle to another, or from vehicle to infrastructure.
Other wireless technology might be able to do exactly like that, even better, but not as low cost as and not as efficient as Zigbee. Another good thing of using Zigbee is its low power consumption. It is the perfect choice for the environment where power is the main factor to be managed.
Application of Zigbee in Industries
Nowadays, almost all big factories is using modern technology. The technology is used to get an effective and efficient production. The automation and intercommunication is very important in the factory.
It could help managing and producing the products. The manufacturers can choose to have wireless network system in the factory to help operation to be efficient.
The best choice would be Zigbee technology. The reason to choose Zigbee wireless is because of its effectiveness and low-cost price. It will definitely give a good impact to the company. The company could join the Zigbee Alliance. This association’s membership is open to all.
With Zigbee Technology Applications in the factory, you can locate raw materials or products that are already finished right when the materials or products are moving in, and out of the facility.
The 2-way Zigbee would help to locate the material in the factory and do monitoring and reporting on the material qualities that includes the humidity, temperature, the like, and vibration or the products.
Application of Zigbee for Pollution Monitoring Caused By Automobile Exhaust Gases
The pollution of air is one of the main health issues that affect many countries. There are complex effects of air pollution on human’s body. It is because of the different sources and various individual effects.
The spreading of the pollution should be monitored. It is important to monitor the pollution, so the government would know what to do to prevent it to be threaten people’s life. One of the causes of Pollution is Automobile exhaust Gases.
Actually, there is an existing system that can monitor the pollution but this system needs to be moderneized. The existing system does not give you the real time values, and it’s quite expensive. Choosing reliable, effective, efficient, and less expensive monitoring system is a must.
Zigbee covers all the requirements for modernizing the Pollution monitoring. It is a continuous online system for real time values for pollutants monitoring. This system will be using low energy and it measures the gases concentration such as NO2, CO, and SO2 via electrochemical sensor.
Application and Analysis of Zigbee Technology for Smart Grid
A Grid refers to a transmission lines network that delivers electricity to your house from the power plant. It’s not only the transmission lines network, but also substation, transformers and more.
So, Smart Grid is the representation of the energy industry’s new era. With the new era of availability, reliability, and efficiency, this technology would contribute to the economic and environmental health of the country.
With the Zigbee Technology Applications, the Smart Grid system would be better. The popularity of Smart Grid has been through the roof and the short-range wireless transmission or Zigbee would be the future smart family’s devices. So, both technologies are best in combination.
There is a product from Zigbee Alliances that is called Zigbee Smart Energy. One of the sub-products from Zigbee Smart Energy is its Home Area Network (HAN).
That will make it easy for governments to spread smart grid solutions with more security, and consumer friendly, and also easy to install.
Reasons of Choosing Zigbee
Overall, the reasons people should choose Zigbee is because of the affordable price. It can be installed in your place by yourself or with professionals. Another benefit of Zigbee Technology Applications is its interoperability.
It is interoperable between some various products according to the factory. In home installation, you can control and monitor your security, lighting, appliances and access of the house.
There are some choices of products you can choose based on your needs. The advantages of Zigbee are that all compliant appliances of Zigbee are compatible to operate on the same network. The setting up is relatively cheap. It gives people the ability to manage the house remotely. There will be no dependence on infrared drives anymore.
Despite all the good things about Zigbee Technology Applications, there are some disadvantages you might have in Zigbee. Sometime, the applications could be confusing for the homeowner, at first. In order to accommodate Zigbee, your house need to be retrofitted, that could be counted as additional cost.
