802.15.4 vs ZigBee - What's the difference?

The Wireless Sensor Network Research group (WSNRG) has published a new article titled 802.15.4 vs ZigBee which helps people understand and distinguish between all the communications technologies that are used in the WSN field: 802.15.4, ZigBee, Mesh protocols, 2.4GHz, 868MHz and 900MHz bands… This document compares both IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee technologies while explaining the main characteristics of each.

To summarize 802.15.4 vs ZigBee: 

• 802.15.4 is thought to be a protocol to get point to point and energy efficient communications.
• ZigBee defines extra services (start topology routing, encryption, application services) over 802.15.4.
• ZigBee creates semi-centralized networks where just the end devices can sleep
• Different completely distributed mesh algorithms are being used over 802.15.4 which is the protocol used to create.

Read the article here.

Comments

[Jim Moore]

I think the answer to your question is "yes. people care." At the end of the day, decisions have to be made about how to develop products. I think end users mostly care that they buy equipment that will work a year from now (and hopefully 10 years from now) and want to get a sense of what standards are "winning" and what their strengths and weaknesses are.

This article certainly is too short to cover all this adequately, but it does cover the issues that matter and lets the reader know what they should be worrying about.

One other note: behind each of the so-called standards is really lurking a company or group of companies that are betting the farm on their implementation taking root. I won't create the linkage for you but, rest assured, that is a fact.

[John G Rumafeoy]

Do people really care anymore? Is 15.4 vs Zigbee really a question that is asked? There's a million other confusion questions (sp100, whart, 6lowpan) that complicate this attempt to provide clarification.