From CSA Connectivity Standards Alliance: New Zigbee Features & Future Industry Trends.
Over the past two years, changes in the way we live and work have led to a rapidly growing demand for digitalization and technology integration across all industries.
Consumers and businesses are looking for products and services that are smarter, more connected, safer, more impactful, and of higher value.
The IoT is a key enabler for enabling smart and connected experiences, and there are several trends critical to its adoption, growth, and value realization: security and privacy, automation, energy management, and sustainability.
Zigbee has been at the forefront of enabling smart and connected experiences for nearly 20 years, evolving and developing to meet industry, customer, and consumer needs, as well as developing new capabilities that reflect these trends.
New Zigbee Features 1. Security and privacy
By 2021, the number of devices connected to the Internet will have exceeded 10 billion. Correspondingly, attempts to exploit connectivity vulnerabilities are increasing, with the number of cyber attacks already reaching 1.5 billion.
To protect consumers, policymakers have created a number of regulations, which continue to grow, in an effort to address risks and reduce vulnerabilities; however, concerns remain.
To help build consumer confidence in connected technologies to increase adoption, these technologies must include features that make devices more secure, including secure cloud-based connectivity and communication protocols, encryption keys, and secure edge computing.
The Zigbee standard was developed with security in mind. Currently, New Zigbee Features Zigbee 3.0 uses the symmetric AES-128-CCM encryption algorithm for encryption at both the network layer and the application sublayer (APS).
It can be used to authenticate and provide confidentiality and enforces encryption across the network, which means that any device that wants to join the network must obtain a network key, and that payload data interacting between any device and corresponding connected devices is encrypted.
Revision 23 (R23), the next version of the ZigbeePRO protocol included in the New Zigbee Features Zigbee 3.0 standard, extends the existing security by adding new security features.
Dynamic LinkKey (DLK) during network addition: Elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman key negotiation mechanism is used to establish the key and authenticate the device before joining the network
Device identification: Using DLK, devices are required to provide information for identification prior to accepting them into the network
Frame counter synchronization feature to provide advanced message replay protection
Improved network parameter security through PANID and channel management
As with previous versions, Zigbee 3.0R23 is interoperable and backward compatible with earlier versions of the standard and installed devices.
When applied to the network, newer devices will be able to take advantage of these new security features.
In addition to security, privacy concerns have made elements such as protecting consumer data, making data privacy transparent, and providing users with control over their private keys to consumer-centric privacy protection mechanisms.
Zigbee standards cover key controls over products to ensure data security and privacy and are integral to manufacturers’ efforts to achieve end-to-end security and data privacy protection.
Zigbee further supports data privacy protection by establishing secure and trusted channels between devices, sharing only essential information, applying well-defined and time-tested streamlined data models, and preventing unauthorized data access or leakage.
Regardless of the application, from industrial automation to consumer devices, Zigbee technology makes it easy to manage devices, enhance the user experience of automation applications, and protect user privacy.
New Zigbee Features 2. Accelerating the Age of Automation
Global digitization is becoming a catalyst for automation in residential and commercial market segments across multiple sectors, including healthcare, smart homes, remote asset monitoring, industrial asset maintenance and self-healing, process optimization, and supply chain digitization, to name a few.
Zigbee, already widely adopted by users and powered by Alexa, is continuing to be of great value. Today, Zigbee is used by many sensors and devices and plays a key role in enabling our vision of ambient intelligence.
Users can create rules and automation for Zigbee devices in Alexa’s apps to make life and the home safer and more convenient.
Consumers seek more convenience, comfort, safety, and security through automation. ZigBee has a wide range of smart home sensors and devices produced by mainstream consumer brands across retail channels.
Of course, lighting devices remain one of the primary IoT devices. Lighting products are the only kind of products that are used in every room of your home and that you interact with on a daily basis.
With New Zigbee Features’ technology, we can offer consumers a variety of ways to control their lighting products, whether it’s a mobile app, voice recognition, creating automation rules for specific times of day, or linking with low-power sensors and switches.
New Zigbee Features Zigbee Direct, the latest feature of Zigbee, combines two market-proven technologies, Zigbee and Bluetooth Low Power, to improve the consumer experience and make automation easier.
New Zigbee Features Zigbee Direct allows users to seamlessly interact with the Zigbee network using a smartphone, tablet, or other Bluetooth-enabled devices.
This feature also simplifies the wiring and commissioning of devices for ease of use in different environments. Digital healthcare for monitoring various health conditions through connected devices is growing rapidly due to the epidemic, and Zigbee is ideal for enabling medical devices to reach connectivity.
In addition to the New Zigbee Features Zigbee Direct capabilities, Zigbee offers low power consumption, high transmission rates, and efficient data transfer capabilities, all of which contribute to the more successful digitization of healthcare.
For commercial buildings, relying on IoT sensing data in offices, warehouses, hotels, and other public spaces to automate can provide access to facility occupancy information and access control data to assist with energy management and comfort.
Today, a wide variety of commercial-grade Zigbee sensors are already available to create smarter buildings. Users in buildings care about factors such as safety, comfort, and security.
Building managers, on the other hand, want to improve their grasp of building conditions to detect potential faults early and perform pre-maintenance for efficient and flexible use of building space and operational efficiency.
That’s why building energy management and automation make considerable business sense. In addition to cost savings, many buildings are integrating features such as local power generation and electric vehicle charging in order to reach the goal of zero emissions by 2050 and meet other regulatory requirements.
Zigbee-based sensors, controllers, and automation devices are an important part of building management solutions.
The industrial sector will also see more IoT-based automation applications, and Zigbee is well positioned in this area with its low power consumption, long battery life, and reliable wireless remote monitoring capabilities.
Many industrial assets are often located in remote areas, which makes monitoring challenging, and Zigbee makes efficient remote monitoring of critical assets and equipment possible.
Buildings can use facility occupancy data and environmental sensing data to automatically control airflow, improve building sanitation, and help meet energy efficiency goals.
Zigbee’s expansion to SubGHz, scheduled for release in 2022, will support more industrial and commercial applications by increasing the reach of reliable and proven mesh networks. ZigBee sensors can also play their part in digitizing the supply chain.
The number of connected devices in a plant is increasing for enhanced monitoring and control, so facility uptime is tied to the reliability, security, and scalability of the underlying connectivity technology. Industrial environments have different performance requirements for these connectivity protocols.
Wired connections are often required where the security of critical applications is required to ensure reliability and response time. In other cases, to meet the mobility, flexibility, and interoperability required for digitization, users are looking for a wireless, battery-free, reliable, and modular solution.
New Zigbee Features 3. Driving energy efficiency and sustainability
Awareness of the human impact on the environment and the rapid depletion of natural resources has brought energy conservation and sustainability into particular focus.
Several markets around the world have been investing in innovations in smart energy and smart cities, such as utility networking, parking meters, traffic signals, charging infrastructure, and power grids.
Zigbee is a leading technology in this field, widely used for energy management in electricity and gas meters, providing consumers with transparent usage information, optimizing energy consumption, and enabling utility grid management.
New Zigbee Features Energy efficiency is also a factor driving the growing demand for electric vehicles (EVs), and charging is key to their operation, both at home and on the road.
This will require the construction of large charging stations in the short term and the building of infrastructure to support this growth.
The New Zigbee Features Smart Energy standard adds a variety of support features, including installation, network distribution, firmware updates, prepaid services, user information and messaging, load control, and demand response.
New Zigbee Features Smart Energy modules in electric vehicles save the cost of expensive wired connections by providing reliable and redundant wireless connectivity.
As charging infrastructure evolves, solutions that better manage demand become critical. Load management and demand response technologies need to be integrated into charging stations through reliable and efficient connectivity technologies, and technologies such as Zigbee are enabling this.
Utilities have a long history of deploying smart meter technology to help manage energy in securely encrypted home local area networks, managing demand to keep it as close to supply as possible, and New Zigbee Features Smart Energy technology has a long history of doing just that.
The source of electricity supply has shifted from stable coal to lower-cost renewable wind and solar energy, so intermittent spikes in energy supply often do not match demand.
At the same time, the demand for electricity is increasing as consumers increasingly prefer electric vehicles due to falling costs and worsening global environmental concerns.
Zigbee provides tools to help utilities optimize grid revenues with minimal investment and save consumers the long-term cost of driving an electric vehicle since 80% of charging is done at home.
To reach sustainability goals, renewable energy sources such as wind and solar need to be used and integrated. For residential and commercial applications, solar is becoming an affordable and convenient energy option.
Zigbee’s low power consumption and high reliability make it one of the leading technologies for wirelessly connecting solar inverters to the cloud.
As a solar monitoring system, Zigbee’s wireless sensors can be used for remote operation of off-grid PV installations to monitor and change the angle of solar panels.
The Zigbee time-of-use (TOU) pricing feature has been shown to change consumer behavior when price increments differ by a factor of four between peak supply and peak demand, shifting the time of demand to peak supply times for solar/wind.
This results in a win-win situation, where the utility solves the oversupply problem and the consumer saves money. The New Zigbee Features Demand Resource feature can also help regulate demand when TOU pricing discrepancies are insufficient.
New Zigbee Features EV management capabilities provide a standardized, vendor-neutral solution that provides information such as EV insertion, charging status, battery size, and EVSE health, helping utilities and consumers work together for mutual benefit and more reliable, low-cost energy.
As electric vehicles and electric vehicle station equipment (EVSE) evolve to support new vehicle-to-home (V2H) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) applications, Zigbee will evolve to support these scenarios as well.
New Zigbee Features Green Power uses energy capture technology to automate residential and commercial spaces using thermal, kinetic, inductive, and light energy, enabling wireless devices to be used virtually anywhere, including those in hard-to-reach places, without the need for power connections or the use of batteries that can cause soil and water pollution.
As global automation trends continue to evolve, Green Power is being used in a variety of new scenarios to create a greener planet.
With buildings accounting for over 70% of total urban emissions, the buildings of the future are becoming more electrified, connected, and digital in order to achieve sustainability and meet regulatory goals.
We are also seeing an increasing number of new construction and digital retrofit projects moving forward in buildings and factories, although commissioning equipment remains a complex and expensive task.
Monitoring electrical and other environmental parameters inside buildings wirelessly can reduce wiring costs and time spent, and reduce installation costs by up to 20%.
In addition, technologies such as New Zigbee Features Green Power that support low-energy connectivity are valuable for battery-free scenarios, as battery replacement requires sending technicians to the site to operate.
The New Zigbee Features Green Power protocol defines a compressed, secure, and highly optimized way to communicate information for ultra-low-power devices. This approach not only saves energy but also reduces pollution and material usage, as there is no need to handle batteries and the copper to be used in cables is eliminated.
With its broad market adoption, proven technology, and hundreds of millions of devices already deployed worldwide, Zigbee is poised for even greater success in 2022 and beyond.
These are the 3 new Zigbee features and its future industry trends.
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