ZigBee Alliance Announces 10th Standard: ZigBee Gateway

SAN RAMON, Calif., July 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The ZigBee® Alliance, a global ecosystem of organizations creating wireless solutions for use in energy management, residential, commercial and consumer applications, today announced the public availability of its 10th standard, ZigBee Gateway™. ZigBee Gateway provides a simple and cost-effective way to enable Internet connections, giving service providers, businesses and consumers the opportunity to implement these devices and connect ZigBee networks to the Internet.

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ZigBee Gateway is the first standard for a new category: ZigBee Network Devices™. ZigBee Network Devices is the category for device specific standards designed to assist and expand ZigBee PRO-based networks. Forthcoming standards for bridge and range extender devices, currently in development, will join ZigBee Gateway in the ZigBee Network Devices category.  

ZigBee Gateway lets manufacturers focus on application development and reduce overall product development time. ZigBee Gateway provides connectivity to Internet Protocol-based networks, plus access to a variety of cloud and smart phone services designed for consumers. Today, ZigBee Gateway supports the following ZigBee standards:

• ZigBee Building Automation™
• ZigBee Health Care™
• ZigBee Home Automation™
• ZigBee Retail Services™
• ZigBee Smart Energy™
• ZigBee Telecom Services™

As a standard, ZigBee Gateway gives developers a common methodology. This helps them mitigate development risk and eliminate the need for custom or proprietary solutions, while also reducing both development and manufacturing cost. Consumers will benefit from more monitoring and control capabilities, including convenient smart phone or tablet app integration for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone operating systems at lower prices.

"ZigBee Gateway gives product manufacturers and service providers a smart and easy way to expand device functionality and deliver the benefits of ZigBee control via the Internet," said Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. "ZigBee networks today routinely access the Internet and ZigBee Gateway makes the job of integrating Internet connectivity simple – especially for developers with little networking experience. Ultimately, this standard will increase the number of value added services using ZigBee and give everyone more convenient control choices."

Products built to the ZigBee Gateway standard are eligible for the ZigBee Certified product program. ZigBee Certified requires independent evaluations of each product's ability to perform consistently and meet tough ZigBee quality standards. This lets consumers look for products with the ZigBee Certified seal and purchase them with confidence.

ZigBee Network Devices: Connect, expand and control more

ZigBee Network Devices is the category for device specific standards designed to assist and expand ZigBee PRO-based networks. ZigBee Gateway is the first standard for the ZigBee Network Devices category and connects selected ZigBee standards-based networks to the Internet. These unique devices can support numerous ZigBee standards and will only use the ZigBee Certified logo on products and collateral. For more information, visit: http://www.ZigBee.org/NetworkDevices.

ZigBee: Control your world

ZigBee offers green and global wireless standards connecting the widest range of devices to work together intelligently and help you control your world. The ZigBee Alliance is an open, non-profit association of approximately 400 organizations driving development of innovative, reliable and easy-to-use ZigBee standards. The Alliance promotes worldwide adoption of ZigBee as the leading wirelessly networked, sensing and control standard for use in consumer, commercial and industrial areas. For more information, visit: www.ZigBee.org.

SOURCE ZigBee Alliance