The Connectivity Requirements Alliance has launched Zigbee 4.0, an up to date model of its wi-fi mesh networking commonplace with higher safety, improved battery life, and batch setup of recent gadgets like sensible lights, switches, and plugs. It’s additionally asserting a brand new characteristic referred to as Suzi, which is brief for Sub-GHz and Zigbee.
Whereas Zigbee sensible dwelling gadgets sometimes function on the two.4GHz band, which might expertise sign loss attributable to obstacles like thick partitions, Suzi-branded gadgets will be capable to work on the European 800 MHz and North American 900 MHz frequency bands. That approach, the group says they’ll supply protection for sensible gadgets put in exterior and farther away from a house, with out the necessity for extra {hardware} to increase the networks.
Suzi is much like different branded options which were added to the 802.15.4-based spec through the years, like Zigbee Good Power utilization monitoring gear, and the low-power / low-maintenance Zigbee Inexperienced Energy gadgets that harvest vitality from sources like mild or warmth as a substitute of utilizing batteries.
As companies like Ikea have been making the transition to Matter over Thread, which additionally operates on the two.4GHz band, some great benefits of Suzi will assist hold the Zigbee protocol aggressive, and never simply within the dwelling. “Suzi is a powerful match for business and industrial use-cases, which introduce difficult environments reminiscent of thick partitions, a number of ranges, and enormous deployments,” Genie Peshkova, chair of the Zigbee Product Advertising Group, defined to The Verge in an e mail.
The record of enhancements coming with Zigbee 4.0 features a simplified certification course of, elevated data alternate between gadgets, higher safety, and improved battery life for gadgets with communications that may be restricted to set schedules.
A brand new characteristic referred to as Batch Commissioning will streamline large-scale installations by permitting a number of sensible gadgets to be arrange concurrently. An electrician might set up Zigbee-compatible mild bulbs all through a brand new home lengthy earlier than there’s even energy, and when a hub is later put in and working, they are often activated without delay as a substitute of getting so as to add them to the community individually.
Zigbee Direct, a beforehand non-obligatory characteristic added two years in the past, is now commonplace in 4.0. It permits smartphones to instantly join, management, and even add close by Zigbee gadgets to a community utilizing Bluetooth Low Power and not using a hub.
Zigbee 4.0 is absolutely backwards suitable with Zigbee 3.0 and Good Power gadgets, and gadgets with “enough operational sources” can probably be upgraded over-the-air as soon as licensed, in accordance with Peshkova. However precisely which gadgets shall be eligible to take full benefit of the enhancements isn’t but identified. The Suzi certification program is scheduled to begin someday within the first half of 2026.
