ZigBee for building control wireless sensor networks

ZigBee and IEEE 802.15.4 are standard-based protocols that provide the network infrastructure required for wireless network applications. The IEEE defines the physical (PHY) and medium access protocol (MAC) layers in its standards. For ZigBee, an alliance of companies worked to develop specifications for stack profiles, which define network, application services and security parameters for the entire network. The stack profile is selected by the ZigBee coordinator and is chosen on the basis of application areas, such as home control, building automation or plant control. Aiming the development of a commercial ZigBee product for home control, in this paper we describe some important aspects of those standards and the main directives of the stack profile and network topology that have been selected for assembling first development kits, which are also presented.