May 3 2010
The leading wireless sensor networks (WSN) vendor Dust Networks has recently joined
the ZigBee Alliance. This alliance includes companies collaborating with one another to develop dependable, wirelessly networked, low power, cost-effective monitoring and control products based on a global open standard.
SmartMesh 1A 5 IO Module
A broad portfolio of products and applications used in government, industrial, commercial and consumer markets world over will utilize ZigBee technology. The ZigBee specification was standardized by this alliance. The specification is on top of the IEEE 802.15.4 global standard’s Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical (PHY) layers. The ZigBee specification also includes the network, security and application profile layers.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S. Department of Energy had included the ZigBee Smart Energy in 2009 among its initial standards list for the Smart Grid roadmap. The ZigBee Smart Energy 2.0 plans were announced recently by the alliance in order to offer an IP-enabled energy management system that is PHY and MAC agnostic and for increasing the usage of ZigBee in new configurations and areas.
Dust Networks’ Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Brenda Glaze, informed that the new range of very low power consuming IEEE 802.15.4 SoCs would offer an ideal platform for Zigbee applications. She added that incorporating the ZigBee networking features in the company’s product range will allow customers to avail the widest range of standards-enabled WSN products.