The CSA Connectivity Standards Alliance, made up of nearly 600 companies working on open standards for the Internet of Things, recently announced the release of Zigbee Direct, a new feature of the Zigbee standard that simplifies the on-boarding of new Zigbee devices and the control of existing devices using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices that are readily available and easy to operate.
Zigbee Direct enables consumers to communicate directly with a large ecosystem of Zigbee devices, such as popular smartphones and smart speakers, without the need for a cloud or hub. The combination of the Zigbee PRO mesh network and the feature-rich Zigbee Cluster Library ensures reliability, performance, and interoperability. At the same time, the ubiquitous BLE in control devices such as hubs, smartphones and tablets simplifies device to access and control.
With the Zigbee Direct certification program, new and existing Zigbee users can use their existing Bluetooth devices to control or configure new products, and the configuration of large networks in commercial buildings has become easier.
Zigbee is a standards-based wireless technology designed to enable low-cost, low-power wireless connectivity and IoT networks between devices.
Although Zigbee has been around for more than 20 years, development of its protocol stack is still actively progressing and expanding, with version 23 of the Zigbee Pro specification expected to be released later this year. more than 1 billion Zigbee chip platforms have been shipped, and hundreds of companies continue to build and deploy Zigbee products. In 2022 alone, more than 400 Zigbee endpoint products and silicon platforms will be certified, bringing the cumulative number of certifications to date to over 4700.
The Zigbee solution family, which already includes Zigbee, Zigbee Smart Energy and the Alliance’s low-energy solution Green Power, grows further with the addition of Zigbee Direct.
