ZigBee and Z-Wave

Sources:
• Hanes et al., IoT Fundamentals: Networking Technologies, Protocols, and Use Cases
for the Internet of Things
• Hersent et al., The Internet of Things: Key Applications and Protocols

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 2

 Recap
• IEEE 802.15.4 standard only
Upper Layers
specifies Physical Layer and Link
Layer
• Network layer and higher layers
IEEE 802.15.4 Logical Link IEEE 802.2 LLC “left as exercise to the reader” 
Control (LLC) Type 1
Data Link Layer
IEEE 802.15.4 Medium Access Control (MAC)

IEEE 802.15.4 868/900 IEEE 802.15.4 2.4 GHz

MHz PHY PHY
Physical Layer

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 3

IEEE 802.15.4-Based IoT Stacks

Application

Wireless Hart

ISA 100.11a
MiWi
ZigBee

6LoWPAN
Network

Data Link
IEEE IEEE IEEE IEEE IEEE
802.15.4 802.15.4 802.15.4 802.15.4 802.15.4
Physical

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 4

ZigBee Overview
• First ZigBee specification was ratified in 2004
shortly after the release of the IEEE 802.15.4
specification the previous year
• While not released as an Internet standard,
ZigBee still had industry support from more than
100 companies upon its initial release
• Industry support has grown to more than 400
companies that are members of the ZigBee Alliance
• Zigbee Alliance is an industry group formed to certify
interoperability between vendors and it is committed
to driving and evolving ZigBee as an IoT solution for
interconnecting smart objects

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 5

ZigBee Alliance Key Members

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 6

ZigBee Certification
• ZigBee is aimed at smart objects and sensors that have low
bandwidth and low power needs
• Products that are ZigBee compliant and certified by the ZigBee
Alliance should interoperate even though different vendors may
manufacture them

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 7

How To Get ZigBee Certified?
From this link:
• New companies that are not yet Alliance members can join the program
by:
• joining the Alliance as an Adopter (or higher level) member; or
• getting started as an Associate member

• Associate members are subject to a separate certification fee structure:

• USD 500 per application
• USD 500 for public listing of the certification at www.zigbeealliance.org (due upon
submission of the application)
• USD 500 annual fee for maintenance of the public listing (due annually on the
anniversary date of the grant of certification)

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 8

Clusters and Application Profiles
• Cluster: a set of commands and message types to achieve related
functions for a device
• Clusters from different functional domains or libraries form the
building blocks of Zigbee Application Profiles

Source: Gislason, Drew. Zigbee wireless networking. Newnes, 2008.

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 9
Application Areas
• The main areas where ZigBee is the most well-known include
automation and smart energy
• Automation:
• In industrial and commercial, ZigBee-based devices can handle various
functions, from measuring temperature and humidity to tracking assets
• In home, ZigBee can control lighting, thermostats, and security functions
• Smart Energy:
• Brings together a variety of interoperable products, such as smart meters,
that can monitor and control the use and delivery of utilities, such as
electricity and water

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 10

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 11
ZigBee Stack
• As mentioned, ZigBee
utilizes the IEEE
802.15.4 standard at the
lower PHY and MAC
layers
• ZigBee specifies the
network and security
layer and application
support layer that sit on
top of the lower layers
Source: Gislason, Drew. Zigbee wireless networking. Newnes, 2008.

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 12

Network Layer
• Provides mechanisms for network startup, configuration, routing,
and securing communications

• Includes discovering neighbours, calculating routing paths, and

managing the routing tables as devices join and leave the network

• Also responsible for forming the appropriate topology, which is

often a mesh but could be a star or tree as well

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 13

Mesh Routing
• ZigBee uses Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing
across a mesh network
• AODV is an on-demand protocol: does not send a message until a
route is needed
• If a route is not in its routing table, node broadcasts a request for a route
• This causes a burst of routing-related traffic, but after a comparison of
various responses, the path with the lowest number of hops is determined
for the connection
• This process is quite different from standard enterprise routing protocols,
which usually learn the entire network topology in some manner and then
store a consolidated but complete routing table

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 14

AODV Route Discovery

Source: Iqbal, et al. “Design and Analysis of a Novel Hybrid Wireless Mesh Network Routing Protocol,”
International Journal of Adaptive, Resilient and Autonomic Systems, 2014.
NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 15
Application Support and Profiles
• Application Support layer interfaces the lower portion of the stack
dealing with the networking of ZigBee devices with the higher-layer
applications

• ZigBee predefines many Application Profiles for certain industries,

and vendors can optionally create their own custom ones at this
layer
• Home Automation and Smart Energy are two examples of popular
application profiles

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 16

ZigBee IP
• With the introduction of ZigBee IP, the support of IEEE 802.15.4
continues, but the IP and TCP/UDP protocols and various other
open standards are now supported at the network and transport
layers
• ZigBee-specific layers are now found only at the top of the protocol stack
for the applications.

• ZigBee IP was created to embrace the open standards coming from

the IETF’s work on LLNs, such as IPv6, 6LoWPAN, and RPL

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 17

Smart Energy Profile 2.0
• ZigBee IP is a critical part of the Smart Energy (SE) Profile 2.0
specification from the ZigBee Alliance

• SE 2.0 is aimed at smart metering and residential energy

management systems

• In fact, ZigBee IP was designed specifically for SE 2.0 but it is not

limited to this use case. Any other applications that need a
standards-based IoT stack can utilize Zigbee IP

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 18

ZigBee IP Stack

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 19

Z-Wave History and Overview
• Z-Wave is a proprietary protocol designed by Zensys (now part of SIGMA
Designs), private company based in the US and Denmark
• Zensys started by introducing a light-control system for consumers, and
evolved its product to a full-fledged home area network meshed protocol
implemented in a proprietary SoC
• Z-wave quickly became a very popular home automation protocol, with
hundreds of products sold on web sites like www.zwaveproducts.com or
www.zwaveworld.com

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 20

Z-Wave Alliance
• Zensys OEMs using the protocol are grouped in the
Z-wave alliance (www.zwavealliance.org ), which
promotes awareness of the product, organizes
developer’s forums and interoperability testing
events (“Unplugfest”)
• Z-wave products are certified by Zensys or agreed
labs, using tools provided by Zensys, which test
various network management functionalities and
assess the communication error rate (CER) of the
device under test at various distances

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 21

Z-Wave Alliance Principal Members

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 22

Z-Wave Protocol Stack
Application Command Classes

Transport Routing

Network Transfer

Data Link Medium Access Control

Physical Physical Layer

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 23

Physical Layer
• Z-wave uses a B-FSK “spectrum shaping” modulation over a 868.42
MHz in the EU, 908.42 MHz in the USA, 921.42 MHz in Australia/NZ,
and 919.82 MHz in Hong Kong

• Output power is programmable from −20 to 0 dBm

• Can decode signals as low as −102 dBm for a data rate of 9.6 kbps (about 30
m indoors, and 150 m in line of sight conditions)

• Maximum bitrate attainable is 40 kbps in favorable link conditions

• Zensys plans to add support for other frequencies (950 MHz and 2.4 GHz) in
Z-wave 6.00, which also targets a higher maximum bitrate over 100 kbit/s

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 24

Medium Access Control
• Uses CSMA/CA based on ITU G.9959

• Supports up to 232 unique network identifiers

• Collision avoidance mechanism: perform random back-off before

retransmitting when collision occurs

• Acknowledgements are used to ensure frame delivery reliability

• Built-in power saving mechanism through duty cycling: nodes sleep and
wakeup according to a wake-up schedule pattern
NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 25
Transfer Layer
• Transfer Layer controls the transmitting and receiving of frames

Frame Types:
• Singlecast
• Multicast
• Broadcast

Source: ITU G.9959

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 26

Routing Layer
• Routing Layer controls the routing of frames in the network
• Z-wave uses source-routing mechanism: the initiator of a frame
generates a complete route to the end destination through a
number of repeaters
• Route consists in a sequence of node IDs that is placed in the frame
in (routed singlecast)
• An always listening node receiving a routed singlecast with its node
ID at the top of the repeater’s list will repeat this frame, just
removing its node ID from the list of repeaters
• If route to device is not known, a search is performed

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 27

Routing and Node Types
Slave

Routing Slave
• Controller:
• Can be primary (only 1) or
secondary
• Can be portable or static
Primary • Has complete topology
Controller knowledge and calculate
routes
• Can act as repeater
• Routing Slave:
• Has partial topology
knowledge
• Can act as repeater
Secondary
Controller • Slave:
• Can only respond to
requests from controller or
routing slave

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 28

Command Classes
• Z-wave Protocol supports the applications by defining a standard
command structure

• Devices declare the supported command classes during the

inclusion process

• Most devices support the basic command class

• Through primitives such as BASIC_SET or BASIC_GET, it is possible to set
or read values for simple devices (like switches and dimmers)

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 29

Basic Command Class
• Consists of two commands and one response:
• SET - set a value between 0 and 255
• GET - ask the device to report a value
• REPORT - response to the GET command, reporting a value between 0 and
255
• Every device interprets the Basic commands depending on that
device’s specific functionality, e.g:
• A binary switch will switch on when receiving a value 255 and switch off
when receiving a value of 0
• A temperature sensor will issue a basic report and send an integer
temperature value
• A door sensor will either send out a value 0 in case the door is closed or a
255 when the door is open
NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 30
Device Classes
• A device class refers to a typical device and defines which
command classes that are mandatory for it to support
• Device classes are organised into a three-layer hierarchy:
• Every device must belong to a basic device class – defines a device as either
controller, routing slave or slave
• Devices may further be assigned to a generic device class - defines a device
as either generic controller, static controller, binary switch, binary sensor,
multi-level switch, multi-level sensor, etc.
• Devices may further be assigned to a specific device class

NWEN 439 Protocols and Architectures for IoT 31