ZigBee Technology

Lect 5
 INTRODUCTION


Wireless Technology is being developed rapidly nowadays. Advancement in
microelectromechanical systems brings integration of sensing, signal processing and Radio
Frequency capability on very small devices.

All kind of portable applications tend to be able to communicate without the use of any wires.
Aim of wireless communication is to gather information or perform certain task in the
environment.

A typical sensor node contains three C’s, they’re Collection, Computation and Communication
units. Based on the request of sink, gathered information will be transmitted wirelessly. The
collection unit has series of sensors. Computation unit contains microcontroller and memory.
Finally the communication unit contains transceiver to transmit and receive data.
Reasons for using Zigbee
 Reliable
 Supports large number of nodes.
 Easy to deploy
 Secure
 Can be used globally
 Vibrant industry support with thirty or more vendors supplying products and services
 Remotely upgradeable firmware
 Low power (ability to operate on batteries measured in years)
 Standards based security [AES128]
Zigbee is one of the most widely utilized Wireless Sensor Network technology with low power, low data rate,
low cost and short time delay characteristics, simple to develop and deploy and provides robust security and
high data reliability. Name of the Zigbee came from zigzagging patterns of honey bees between flowers,
represents the communication between nodes in a mesh network.
 ZIGBEE AND IEEE 802.15.4.

 ZigBee is developed by ZigBee alliance. ZigBee and IEEE 802.15.4 are not the same. ZigBee technology is
a standard based network protocol supported solely by the ZigBee alliance that uses the transport
services of the IEEE 802.15.4 network specification.
 ZigBee alliance is responsible for ZigBee technology and IEEE is for IEEE 802.15.4 standard. ZigBee
alliance (software) defines the network, security and application layers. IEEE802.15.4 (hardware) defines
the physical and media access control layers for low-rate, wireless personal area network (LR-WPAN).
 Power needed for ZigBee is very small. In most cases it uses 1mW (or less power). But still it provides
range up to 150 meters in outdoor which is achieved by the technique called direct sequence spread
spectrum (DSSS). Also DSSS consumes less power compared to Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum
(FHSS).
 FHSS is where the users are made to change the frequencies of usage, from one to another in a specified
time interval, hence called as frequency hopping.
 DSSS is when a user wants to send data using this technique, each and every bit of the user data is
multiplied by a secret code, called a chipping code. This chipping code is nothing but the spreading code
which is multiplied with the original message and transmitted. The receiver uses the same code to
retrieve the original message.
 It works in the 868 MHz (Europe), 915 MHz (North America and Australia) and 2.4 GHz (available
worldwide) ISM band with up to 20kbps, 40kbps and 250kbps data rate respectively. Because these
wave bands are different from the bands of current common wireless networks, Wireless Fidelity (Wi-
Fi), Bluetooth etc. mutual interferences between them will not occur, therefore, this guarantees that
systems will not interfere with other wireless networks and will not be affected as well.

 The IEEE 802.15.4 standard supports theoretically more than 65,000 nodes per network. ZigBee
network can have up to 653,356 devices, the distance between ZigBee devices can be up to 50 meters,
and each node can relay data to other nodes. This leads capability of making a very big network which
covers significant distances.
How Zigbee Works?

 ZigBee basically uses digital radios to allow devices to communicate with one another. A
typical ZigBee network consists of several types of devices.
 A network coordinator is a device that sets up the network, is aware of all the nodes
within its network, and manages both the information about each node as well as the
information that is being transmitted/received within the network. Every ZigBee network
must contain a network coordinator.
 Other Full Function Devices (FFD's) may be found in the network, and these devices
support all of the 802.15.4 functions.
 They can serve as network coordinators, network routers, or as devices that interact
with the physical world.
 The final device found in these networks is the Reduced Function Device (RFD), which
usually only serve as devices that interact with the physical world.
 ZIGBEE TECHNOLOGY

 ZigBee device are the combination of application (such as light sensor, lighting control etc), ZigBee logical
(coordinator, router, end device) and ZigBee physical device types (Full Function Device and Reduced Function
Device)
A. ZigBee physical device types
 Based on data processing capabilities, two types of physical devices are provided in IEEE 802.15.4: Full Function
Devices (FFD) and Reduced Function Devices (RFD). Full Function Devices can perform all available operations
within the standard, including routing mechanism, coordination tasks and sensing task. The FFD plays role of
coordinator or router or end devices (It can be either FFD or RFD depends on its intended application).
 A typical FFD in a ZigBee network will be powered from an alternating current fed (AC-fed) mains supply, as it must
always be active and listening to the network. Reduced Function Devices, on the other hand, implements a limited
version of the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol.
 The RFDs do not route packets and must be associated with an FFD. These are end devices such as sensors
actuators which are only doing limited tasks like recording temperature data, monitoring lighting condition or
controlling external devices.
 The current ZigBee standard requires FFDs to be always on, which in practice means that FFDs must be constantly
powered. Battery-powered FFDs have a lifetime on the order of a few days.
B. ZigBee logical device types

 There are three categories of nodes in a ZigBee system. They are Coordinator, Router and End devices.
1) Coordinator: Forms the root of the network tree and might bridge to other networks. There is exactly
one coordinator in each network. It is responsible for initiating the network and selecting the network
parameters such as radio frequency channel, unique network identifier and setting other operational
parameters. It can also store the information about network, security keys.
2) Router: Router acts as intermediate nodes, relaying data from other devices. Router can connect to
an already existent network, also able to accept connections from other devices and be some kind of re-
transmitters to the network. Network may be extended through the use of ZigBee routers.
3) End Devices: End Device can be low-power/battery-powered devices. They can collect various
information from sensors and switches. They have sufficient functionality to talk to their parents (either
the coordinator or a router) and cannot relay data from other devices. This reduced functionality allows
for the potential to reduce their cost. They support better low power models. These devices do not have
to stay awake the whole time, while the devices belonging to the other two categories have to. Each end
device can have up to 240 end nodes which are separate applications sharing the same radio.
 C. Access Modes
 Two ways of multi-access in ZigBee protocol, are Beacon and Non-beacon.
 In non beacon enabled network, every node in the network can send the data when
the channel is free.
 In beacon enabled network, nodes can only transmit in predetermined time slots.
 Here PAN coordinator allocates guaranteed time slots (GTS) for each device; therefore
devices will transmit their data during their own slot.
 All devices should be synchronized for this process. This will be achieved by sending
beacon signal.
 The coordinator is responsible to transmit beacon signals to synchronize the devices
attached to it. Network in which the coordinator does not transmit beacon signal is
known as non-beacon network. It cannot have GTS and contention free periods,
because the devices are not synchronized. Battery life is better than beacon enabled
network, because the devices are wake up less often.
 ZIGBEE PROTOCOLS STACK
 Protocol architecture is based on Open system interconnection (OSI). ZigBee builds on IEEE standard 802.15.4
which defines the physical and media access control (MAC) layers. ZigBee alliance defines the network layer and
application layer. Figure below shows protocol stack of ZigBee system
A. Physical Layer

 The physical layer of the IEEE802.15.4 standard is the closest layer to the hardware, which control and
communicate with the radio transceiver directly. It handles all tasks involving the access to the ZigBee
hardware, including initialization of the hardware, channel selection, link quality estimation, energy
detection measurement and clear channel assessment to assist the channel selection. Supports three
frequency bands, 2.45GHz band which uses 16 channels, 915MHz band which uses 10 channels and
868MHz band uses 1 channel. All three use the Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) access mode.
 A band is a small section of the spectrum of radio communication frequencies, typically used for the same
purpose.
B. MAC Layer

 This layer provides interface between physical layer and network layer. This provides two services; MAC data
services and MAC management service. The MAC data service enables the transmission and reception of MAC
Protocol Data Units (MPDUs).
 MAC layer is responsible for generating beacons and synchronizing devices to the beacon signal in a beacon
enabled services. It is also performing association and dissociation function. It defines four frame structures;
are Beacon frame, Data frame, Acknowledge frame, MAC command frame. Interoperability is one of the
advantages of ZigBee protocol stack. ZigBee has wide range of applications, so different manufacturer provides
ZigBee devices. ZigBee devices can interact with each other regardless of manufacturer.
 Manages RF data transactions between neighboring devices (point to point). The MAC includes services such
as transmission retry and acknowledgment management, and collision avoidance techniques (CSMA-CA).
C. Network Layer

 Network layer interfaces between application layer and MAC Layer. This Layer is responsible for
network formation and routing. Routing is the process of selection of path to relay the messages to
the destination node. This forms the network involving joining and leaving of nodes, maintaining
routing tables (coordinator/router), actual routing and address allocation. ZigBee coordinator or router
will perform the route discovery. This layer Provides network wide security and allows low power
devices to maximize their battery life. From the basic topologies, there are three network topologies
are considered in IEEE802.15.4 are star, cluster tree and mesh.
D. Application Layer
 The application Layer is the highest protocol layer and it hosts the application objects. ZigBee
specification separates this layer into four different sub-layers: the Application Support Sub layer, the
ZigBee Device Objects, and Application Framework having manufacturer defined Application Objects.

1) The application objects (APO): Control and manages the protocol layers in ZigBee device. It is a piece of
software which controls the hardware. Each application objects assigned unique end point number that
other APO’s can use an extension to the network device address to interact with it. There can be up to 240
application objects in a single ZigBee device. A ZigBee application must conform to an existing application
profile which is accepted ZigBee Alliance. An application profile defines message formats and protocols
for interactions between application objects. The application profile framework allows different vendors
to independently build and sell ZigBee devices that can interoperate with each other in a given application
profile.
2) ZigBee Device Object: It addresses three main operations; service discovery, security and binding. The
role of discovery is to find nodes and ask about MAC address of coordinator/router by using unicast
messages. The discovery is also facilitating the procedure for locating some services through their profile
identifiers. The security services in this ZigBee device object have the role to authenticate and derive the
necessary keys for data encryption. The role of binding manager is to binding nodes to routes and
applications also binding devices to channels.

3) Application support sub layer: The Application Support (APS) sub layer provides an interface between the
Network and the Application layers through a general set of services provided by APS data and management
entities. The APS sub layer processes outgoing/incoming frames in order to securely transmit/receive the
frames and establish/manage the cryptographic keys. APS Layer Security includes the following services:
Establish Key, Transport Key, Update Device, Remove Device, Request Key, Switch Key, Entity Authentication,
and Permissions Configuration Table.
4) Security service provider: ZigBee provides security mechanism for network layer and application
support layers, each of which is responsible for securing their frames. Security services include
methods for key establishment, key transport, frame protection and device management.
 ZIGBEE APPLICATION

 Throughput of ZigBee is low; rate of data transfer is about 250kbps. So this ZigBee system
is useful for applications needs low data rate. Some of its applications are ; Home
Automation and Control, Automatic Meter Reading, Residential & commercial utility
systems, Building Automation, Personal health care, Body area networks, Fitness
monitoring: home, gym, on-the-move, ZigBee Smart Energy, Hospital & institutional,
Patient monitoring, Cable replacements, Automotive, In vehicle control: vehicular &
entertainment, Status monitoring, Telecom Services.
Comparison of Zigbee,Wifi & Bluetooth
Factors ZigBee Wi-Fi Bluetooth

Range 10-150 meters 50-100 meters 10-100meters

Networking Topology Ad-hoc, peer to peer, star or Point-hub Ad-hoc, Very small
mesh networks
Operating Frequency 868 MHz(Europe) 2.4 and 5 GHz 2.4GHz
900-928 MHz()
2.4GHz (Worldwide)
Power Consumption Very low(low power is a High Medium
design goal)
Security 128 AES plus application Wi-Fi Protected 64 and 128 bit
layer security Access 2 (WPA 2) encryption
Applications Industrial control & Wireless LAN Wireless connectivity
monitoring, Sensor connectivity, between devices e.g
Networks, building broadband phones, laptops, PDA,
automation, home control & Internet access headsets
automation
Standard
● The End