The emergence of ZigBee in building automation and industrial control

There has been increased interest in the ZigBee standard, in particular for building automation and industrial controls. The ZigBee Alliance has identified six application spaces for ZigBee: consumer electronics, PC and peripherals, residential/light commercial control, industrial control, building automation and personal healthcare. This article deals mainly with industrial control and building automation. Increasingly, companies developing monitoring and control applications in industrial and commercial building environments are looking to wireless technologies like ZigBee to save the cost of wiring and installation and also to allow more flexible deployment of systems.