The underlying technologies in WSNs: ZigBee vs. wireless HART

Monitoring and control of various Industrial and home applications through wireless systems is gaining importance. A lot of standards in wireless technologies have been devised which differ in metrics of stability, power consumption and security etc. Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN) generally operate in a spectrum of 868/ 915 MHz and 2GHz ISM bands and these networks follow IEEE 802.15.4 standard. ZigBee is an effective, economic, low power standard for monitoring and control of various home applications. However for Industrial control and monitoring, Wireless HART and ISA 100.11a have emerged as the preferred ones. Underlying technologies, applications and characteristics of ZigBee which is making inroads in home appliances and Wireless HART an Industrial Automation Standard have been discussed in this paper.