SAN RAMON, Calif. — The ZigBee® Alliance, a nonprofit association of organizations creating open, global standards to define the Internet of Things, has announced the unification of its wireless standards into a single standard named ZigBee 3.0. According to the Alliance, this standard will provide interoperability among a wide range of smart devices and give consumers and businesses access to products and services that will work together seamlessly to enhance everyday life.

The Alliance said the ZigBee 3.0 standard enables communication and interoperability among devices for home automation, connected lighting, energy efficiency, and other markets so more diverse, fully interoperable solutions can be delivered by product developers and service providers. All device types, commands, and functionality defined in current ZigBee PRO-based standards are available to developers in the new standard.

Based on IEEE 802.15.4, which operates at 2.4 GHz (a frequency available for use around the world), ZigBee 3.0 uses ZigBee PRO networking to enable reliable communication in the smallest, lowest-power devices, said the Alliance. Current ZigBee certified products based on ZigBee Home Automation and ZigBee Light Link are interoperable with ZigBee 3.0. A complete list of standards that have been merged to create ZigBee 3.0 can be found at www.zigbee.org.

“The ZigBee Alliance is addressing the critical need for application level standardization,” said Mareca Hatler, director of research with ON World. “This announcement will build on the Alliance’s leadership across the Internet of Things, while continuing to provide the foundation for innovative products and services for smart homes, connected lighting, and other high growth markets.”

ZigBee 3.0 is currently undergoing testing. Many Alliance members, including The Kroger Co., Legrand, NXP, Philips, Schneider Electric, Silicon Labs, Texas Instruments, Wincor Nixdorf, and V-Mark have been actively involved in the development and testing process. The draft standard is available to members of the ZigBee Alliance and is expected to be ratified in the fourth quarter of 2015. ZigBee 3.0 demonstrations are planned for the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2015.

“The ZigBee Alliance has always believed that true interoperability comes from standardization at all levels of the network, especially the application level which most closely touches the user,” said Tobin J. M. Richardson, president and CEO of the ZigBee Alliance. “Lessons learned by Alliance members when taking products to market around the world have allowed us to unify our application standards into a single standard. ZigBee 3.0 will allow product developers to take advantage of ZigBee’s unique features such as mesh networking and green power to deliver highly reliable, secure, low-power, low-cost solutions to any market.”

For more information about ZigBee 3.0, visit www.zigbee.org.

Publication date: 12/1/2014

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