ZigBee Alliance finalizes specification for interoperable wireless standard

San Ramon, CA— The ZigBee Alliance reports that it has ratified the first ZigBee wireless specification, which it says will help users develop and deploy powerful, efficient, cost-effective, low data-rate monitoring, control, and sensing networks. This on-time delivery of the specification concludes two years of worldwide development and interoperability testing by more than 100 member companies in the ZigBee Alliance.

For members that have already announced ZigBee-ready technologies, the alliance’s ratification of the specification enables them to quickly enhance their products and begin testing to obtain ZigBee-compliant certification. All alliance members have complete and exclusive access to the final specification and will continue to participate in ongoing interoperability testing to verify that their products are ZigBee-compliant.

‘The announcement of the ZigBee specification is a major milestone in wireless networking,’ says Andrew Wale, Advance Transformer Co.’s business development VP. ‘ZigBee is poised to become the leading wireless technology for a myriad of uses ranging from building automation to industrial and residential applications. As a member of the alliance, we have been following closely the development and ratification of the specification, and look forward to bringing innovative new products to consumers using ZigBee technology.’ Advance is a division of Philips Electronics North America Corp.

Now that its specification is ratified, the alliance will continue to validate the specification through expanded interoperability and scalability tests and future enhancements. The alliance will actively promote the use of ZigBee-enabled technology in real-world applications to foster new, creative applications for the market, as well as facilitate broader market adoption of the ZigBee standard worldwide.

‘The adoption of the ZigBee specification gives member companies the opportunity to capi-talize on this innovative technology for monitoring, sensing and control applications in residential and commercial environments,’ adds Bob Heile, ZigBee Alliance’s chairman. ‘We’re excited to reach such a significant milestone in the development of the global ZigBee specification. Given the number of ZigBee-ready products announced in 2004, we anticipate seeing ZigBee-compliant consumer products as soon as early-2005.’

ZigBee is reportedly the only standards-based technology for meeting the unique needs of low-cost, low-power, wireless sensor networks for remote monitoring, home control, and building automation networking applications in the industrial and consumer markets.

To learn more about ZigBee, to see a full list of alliance members, or to join, visit the newly updated alliance Web site at www.zigbee.org .

Control Engineering Daily News Desk
Jim Montague, news editor
jmontague@reedbusiness.com

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