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A ZigBee solution requires a RF transceiver, a microcontroller for application processing, and a ZigBee stack. Developing a ZigBee solution is much more complicated than putting all of them together. To ensure successful ZigBee implementation, it is imperative to rely on a partner who has knowledge of the architecture, capable of assessing design options at the chip and module levels and evaluating numerous practical issues identifiable to applications. |
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Mindteck has developed ZigBee technology enabled water meters and energy monitors with wireless data transfer and efficient metering capabilities. We have the ability to develop applications on both multi-vendor and single vendor platform solutions.
Our ZigBee center of excellence with its proven methodology provides one-stop-shop ZigBee solution – product evaluation, design, development, implementation and deployment.
ZigBee
offers distinctive advantages for wireless applications
of the following industries:
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Building
automation (security, HVAC, AMR and lighting
access control) |
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Home automation (security, entertainment
systems, HVAC and lighting access control)
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Industrial
automation (asset management, process
control, energy management) |
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When developing low-power and low-data rate wireless
remote monitoring and control applications, it is
essential to consider multiple network topologies,
power management methods, routing and route discovery,
network recovery and healing, interoperability and
security.
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Network
Topology |
ZigBee supports star, mesh, and cluster-tree
network topologies. Choosing the right
network topology that best suits the application
is an important decision. When data reliability
is crucial, mesh architectures provide
the best shield against signal degradation
and loss of data. On the other hand few
shorter range applications would be a
hierarchical tree or star topology where
the overheads of mesh network are not
required. |
Power Management
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Power management is the most important
factor since the operation will rely on
many battery powered devices in the network.
The devices need a considerable amount
of sleep time to augment their lifetime. |
Routing and Route Discovery |
It
is important to ensure applications use
robust routing algorithm and discover
the best possible route for data transmission
from one node to another and remember
them. The coordinators and routers maintain
the routing and route discovery tables
and employ the ZigBee path cost metric
for route discovery and route repair. |
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Recovery and Healing |
In
a situation when the network goes down,
for example due to power failure, the
application should be designed to take
care of the recovery of the network to
its previous state and continue with data
transmission without any errors. |
Interoperability
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We design
applications based on the public profiles
provided by ZigBee, offering complete
interoperability with other devices designed
using the same profile. ZigBee 1.0 has
defined the public profile for lighting.
For e.g. a halogen bulb manufacturer using
the public ZigBee lighting profile can
interoperate with any third party light
switch dimmers using the same profile.
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We also design private application profiles
to create restricted single or select vendor
systems where products don’t provide open
interoperability.
Security
We incorporate the security elements
of 802.15.4 defined by ZigBee stack for MAC,
network, and application layers. These include
methods for key establishment and transport,
device management, and frame protection. Based
on the application needs, we decide whether
to encrypt the data frame’s payload and
the length of the authentication code, creating
a balance between message protection and the
overheads. When the strongest security is required,
we secure at the application layer using a session
key that can be authenticated and decrypted
only by another device possessing the key.
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