What is Zigbee? Discover its advantages and our Zigbee products

In the field of home automation, connectivity is one of its fundamental factors, since it will define the way in which the different devices communicate. In this area, wireless technology offers various products currently on the market, each with its strengths and drawbacks. And, in this article, we will focus on Zigbee, one of these wireless communication protocols that has multiple advantages for the smart home.

What is Zigbee?

Zigbee is a wireless communication protocol born in 2004. It is an open standard managed by the Zigbee Alliance and works through a mesh type network. Due to its main advantages, such as its low consumption or its type of network, it is an ideal alternative for, for example, smart lighting .

Features of the Zigbee protocol

As we have seen, Zigbee uses a “Mesh type network topology”. Its main advantage is that, within this network, the elements that make it up can operate as senders and receivers, compared to other options that require a centralized device to assume all of these tasks.

Thanks to this feature and the fact that Zigbee's radius of action is small, about 10-20 meters, a network can be built as long as the maximum distance between nodes does not exceed that limit; something that translates into low consumption compared to other alternatives that cover more distance.

Specifically, this wireless technology is made up of a coordinator, that is, a node that generates the network and coordinates it, such as the Brigde Zigbee , one or more nodes that act as a router and, finally, others called end devices that cannot route. In these networks, therefore, each of the elements will serve as a repeater.

Advantages and disadvantages of Zigbee compared to other alternatives

Thanks to mesh technology and its open standard, Zigbee offers different advantages over other possibilities such as WiFi, Bluetooth or Z Wave which, although it also uses a mesh network, is not open.

Zigbee vs WiFi

The main strength of Zigbee compared to a WiFi network is that it offers lower consumption. In addition, it avoids saturation of the router, since the nodes themselves fulfill that function, except for the hub connected to the Internet. In contrast, the data transfer rate of WiFi networks is higher.

Zigbee vs Bluetooth

Although they are similar networks in some parameters and Bluetooth has a higher transmission speed, it does not allow connecting as many nodes to the network and its range is shorter than Zigbee.

Zigbee vs Z Wave

Although both are mesh networks, Zigbee is an open standard that any brand can adopt, while Z Wave belongs to Silicon Labs. Consequently, the advantages include greater expansion of Zigbee, but it can also present compatibility problems. In addition, Z Wave has a greater range of action, up to 100 meters.

Garza products compatible with the Zigbee protocol

The advantages of home automation There are many and, within this field, the characteristics of Zigbee make this technology a perfect option for aspects such as intelligent air conditioning , with devices such as Zigbee thermostatic head , or the connectivity.

But if there is a field in which it is an ideal option, it is lighting, where you can find products such as gu10 Zigbee bulb and others many led smart bulbs that you can find in our home automation online store .