Report shows competition for ZigBee

Wireless mesh networking is expected to make significant inroads in industrial monitoring and control applications, a new study from VDC reports, although not necessarily due to ZigBee.

Wireless mesh networking is expected to make significant inroads in industrial monitoring and control applications, a new study from VDC reports, although not necessarily due to ZigBee.

According to VDC's "North American market for RF/microwave wireless monitoring and control products in discrete and process manufacturing", shipments of wireless products under study using mesh networking will grow from $6.1 million in 2004 to $25.1 million in 2007, a compound annual growth rate of 60.2%.

ZigBee-enabled products used in industrial monitoring and control applications accounted for only $0.5 million in 2004 and are expected to account for about $7 million in 2007.

Although ZigBee-ready products were available in 2004, the standard is very new.

Ratification of the IEEE802.15.4 standard occurred in August 2003, while the ZigBee specification was finalised in December 2004 and the first "official" ZigBee-compliant products were shipped in April 2005.

Based on the IEEE802.15.4 standard, ZigBee is a global specification created by a multivendor consortium called the ZigBee Alliance.

Whereas 802.15.4 defines the physical and MAC layers of an application, ZigBee defines the network/security layer, application framework and, in some cases, the application profile.

ZigBee provides users in specific applications with a simple, low-cost global network that supports a large number of nodes with an extremely low power drain on the battery.

Despite the advantages of ZigBee, the majority of wireless mesh networking product shipments for industrial monitoring and control applications in North America is currently of products operating in the ISM bands, with the use of the 900MHz band most prevalent.

As 802.15.4 and ZigBee become more accepted, the share of wireless mesh networking product shipments using these standards will increase.

However, products employing proprietary protocols and other standard networks are expected to account for the majority of shipments up to 2007.

According to VDC analyst Jake Millette, many vendors are choosing to develop proprietary mesh networks based on 802.15.4, but not ZigBee.

"Many vendors feel that ZigBee is an excellent solution for a variety of applications", notes Millette, "but for industrial applications where a robust network is essential, some develop their own mesh network to best meet the needs of their customers and target applications".

"Still, ZigBee is being investigated by many vendors and we will see many more ZigBee-based solutions in the industrial market as the standard matures".

Vendors developing proprietary mesh protocols based on 802.15.4, but not necessarily ZigBee, include Dust Networks, Sensicast and Millenial Net.

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