What Is a ZigBee Module?
A ZigBee module is a module with a built-in IC that supports ZigBee, an international communication standard.
The ZigBee communication standard is one of the standards for short-distance wireless communication. Although the transmission distance is short and the transmission speed is relatively slow, it features inexpensive circuitry with low power consumption. For this reason, ZigBee is used in relatively large numbers for implementation in compact and mobile devices.
The name “ZigBee” comes from the fact that Bee, a honeybee, flies around in a zigzag pattern.
Uses of Zigbee Modules
Zigbee modules are used for remote control of home appliances, sensor communication for home equipment, and power visualization, which can take advantage of their low power consumption for short-distance communication applications.
In recent years, the relative advantage of Bluetooth has been diminishing due to its improved power-saving performance, and Bluetooth is increasingly used in a relatively wide variety of electronic devices and scenes.
One of the unique features of ZigBee is its advantage in the maximum number of simultaneous connections, making it suitable for collecting information from a large number of sensors at once.
Principle of Zigbee Modules
Zigbee modules are communication modules equipped with an IC to utilize ZigBee, a standardized alliance for the purpose of connecting battery-powered communication devices such as sensors with as low power consumption as possible. In particular, the electrical specifications are standardized in IEEE 802.15.4.
One of the greatest features of ZigBee is its extremely low standby power consumption during sleep mode.
The system also has an extremely fast response time from standby to communication. This makes ZigBee suitable for applications such as remote control of home appliances and housing equipment, where data is not exchanged constantly, but is transmitted instantaneously when necessary, and then goes into standby sleep mode again.
On the other hand, the low transmission speed of up to 250kbps in the 2.4GHz band is not suitable for applications that require large-volume data transmission such as voice and video. In addition, since Wi-Fi and Bluetooth also use the 2.4GHz band, it is necessary to pay close attention to radio interference, and depending on the environment, shielded devices may be required.
Other Information on Zigbee Modules
1. Compatibility With the Internet
The ZigBee protocol stack is not TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), and in general, it is not highly compatible with the Internet. Therefore, if you want to connect to the Internet environment, you need to set up a separate gateway relay station.
2. Comparison With Bluetooth
ZigBee is often compared to Bluetooth, another wireless standard used for embedded devices, which also uses the same 2.4GHz frequency band as ZigBee and has the same features of short-distance communication, low-speed communication, and low power consumption.
In general, ZigBee is more power-efficient, but due to the difference in features between Bluetooth and ZigBee, it is necessary to distinguish between Bluetooth and ZigBee depending on the situation in which it is used.
ZigBee is suitable for communications in which data communication is performed after a certain interval of time because of its low power consumption in sleep mode and small recovery time. Note that if the data communication interval cannot be sufficiently long, the power-saving effect will be low.
In contrast, Bluetooth takes time to connect and disconnect, so it is better to turn off the module power supply itself instead of putting it to sleep when using Bluetooth to save power.
ZigBee also allows multiple simultaneous connections, which can be beneficial when building a system that collects multiple sensor information.
3. Simultaneous Connection Method
ZigBee offers various methods for multiple simultaneous connections. It can support tree and mesh connection methods, as well as bucket relay data transfer through routers. This is one of the features of ZigBee.
To give an example, if a communication network is built using ZigBee, up to 65,536 terminals (using addresses up to 0xFFFF) can be connected according to the standard.
Therefore, the ZigBee modules are suitable for applications that require low power consumption and simultaneous communication to a large number of sensors using various methods.