Editor’s Note: This is a post from Connectivity Standards Alliance.
Zigbee brings full-stack, low-power and secure standards to smart devices. This market-proven technology standard connects homes and buildings around the world. In 2021, Zigbee landed on Mars in its 17th year of existence, with more than 4,000 certifications and impressive momentum.
Zigbee in 2021
Since its release in 2004, Zigbee as a wireless mesh network standard has gone through 17 years, years is the evolution of technology, maturity and market applicability of the best witness, only years of deployment and use in the real environment, the standard can reach a peak of perfection.
More than 500 million Zigbee chips have been sold, and cumulative shipments are expected to approach 4 billion by 2023. Hundreds of millions of Zigbee devices are used by millions of users around the world every day, and industry leaders are advancing standards through the CSA Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA Alliance) platform, keeping Zigbee one of the most popular Internet of Things (IoT) standards in the world.
In 2021, Zigbee continued to evolve with the release of new features to be added in the future, including Zigbee Direct, a new Zigbee sub-ghz solution, and collaboration with DALI Alliance, as well as the official release of the new Zigbee Unified Testing Tool (ZUTH), These milestones are testament to the development and success of Zigbee standards by making the process of developing, designing and testing products to alliance standards more efficient.
Steady certification growth trend
The Zigbee Certification program ensures that high quality, interoperable Zigbee products are available to product developers, ecosystem vendors, service providers and their customers. Certification means that the product has undergone complete standardized testing and that the ZigBee-branded products are interoperable.
Despite the challenges posed by novel Coronavirus and international chip shortages, 2021 was a record-breaking year for Zigbee. Certification has reached another milestone, with more than 4,000 Zigbee certified products and compatible chip platforms available for the market to choose from, including more than 1,000 Zigbee 3.0 devices. The growing trend for certification began to take off in 2020, reflecting steady growth in market demand, increasing product deployments, and widespread adoption of low-power wireless technologies. In 2021 alone, more than 530 new Zigbee devices, including lighting, switches, home monitors and smart meters, were certified.
The continued growth of certification is the result of the combined efforts of hundreds of equipment manufacturers and developers around the world who are committed to expanding the interoperable field for users. The top 10 Zigbee certified member companies in 2021 include: Adeo Services, Hangzhou Tiandu, IKEA, Landis+Gyr AG, Ridasen, Rogelang, Lidl, Schneider Electric, SmIC and Doodle Intelligence, to certify your products and join the interoperable Internet of Things with these leading companies, Please visit https://csa-iot.org/certification/why-certify/.
Zigbee to alien
Zigbee has landed on Mars! Zigbee had an unforgettable moment in March 2021 when it was used for wireless communication between the WIT DRONE and the Perseverance rover on NASA’s Mars exploration mission! Stable, reliable and low-power Zigbee is not only an excellent choice for residential and commercial building applications on Earth, but also ideal for Mars missions!
New tools — The Zigbee Unified Testing Tool (ZUTH) and the PICS tool — were released
The CSA Alliance has launched the Free Zigbee Unified Testing Tool (ZUTH) and PICS tool. ZUTH integrates the functionality of previous Zigbee testing tools with Green Power testing tools to further simplify the certification testing process. It can be used to pre-test products developed according to the latest version of Zigbee 3.0, Basic Device Behavior (BDB), and Green Power specifications before submitting them for formal certification testing by an authorized Test laboratory (ATL) of a member’s choice, which is also the official testing tool used by ZUTH. The alliance issued more than 320 ZUTH licenses in 2021 to support the development and certification of new Zigbee products and platforms.
In addition, the new PICS Web tool enables members to complete PICS files online and export them in XML format so that they can be submitted directly to the Consortium’s certification team or automatically select test items when using ZUTH’s testing tool. The combination of two new tools, PICS and ZUTH, greatly simplifies the testing and certification process for alliance members.
Development is active and investment continues
The Zigbee Working Group has worked tirelessly on enhancements to existing features and the development of new ones, such as Zigbee Direct and a new SubGHz solution scheduled for 2022. Last year, the number of developers participating in the Zigbee Working Group grew even further, with 185 member companies and more than 1,340 individual representatives committed to continuing to advance Zigbee technology.
Moving into 2022, the CSA Alliance will work with our members to share their Zigbee success stories and the latest Zigbee products to market to make consumers’ lives more comfortable and convenient.
Post time: Feb-21-2022