The State of Home Networking: Home Networking from B(luetooth) to Z(igBee)

The past half-decade has seen a tremendous growth in the practical ability and usage for networking devices within the home. Meanwhile, networking technologies developed and fielded over the last several years have made it possible to make robust and reliable networks supporting data rates from less than a bit per second to well over 1 Gbps. With this kind of data rate range, and the tremendous variations in requirements for quality of service, latency, jitter, and differences in usage, it's no wonder that one network technology cannot do it all. Not all homes are created equally " both wired and wireless network components may be part of the solution. For home control and monitoring, IEEE802.15.4 wireless with ZigBee network technology is the likely candidate for cost-effective, battery-efficient networking of lighting, home automation, HVAC, security, safety, yard and garden functionality in the residential space. The combination of these international, open standards, manufactured by most of the top-10 silicon vendors, coupled with a rich developer ecosystem means strong availability, excellent price competition, and significant enhancements as a result of competitive differentiation.