WTRS Executive Interview

Interview with Bob Heile, Chairman of the ZigBee Alliance & Chair of the IEEE 802.15.4 Working Group on Wireless Personal Area Networks.

May 8, 2006

1. Can you tell us a bit about your background?

During the 80’s I was GM for the modem business at Codex/Motorola where we did a lot of the ground breaking work which is now routinely available in every laptop. It is also where I did my first WLAN. I have been in the wireless data space now for over 20 years. 2.4 gig was implemented with plumbing (Ed: copper wave guide) when I started. In 1990 I was a co-founder of an early WLAN company and wound up becoming one of the founding members of 802.11. Then as now I am a firm believer that standards are essential to developing large successful markets. Over the years, I have been involved in a lot of pioneering wireless enterprises including being an early developer of 802.11 hotspots, mesh networking, UWB and of course the development of the wireless sensor and control network market both as Chair of 802.15 and 15.4 and then as the Chairman of the ZigBee Alliance.

2. What is the ZigBee Alliance?

The ZigBee Alliance is a global ecosystem of over 200 leading companies creating wireless solutions for use in home, commercial and industrial applications. Considering the customers of our member companies, this translates to well over a thousand companies developing with the technology. It is the only global wireless communications standard enabling the development of easily deployable, low-cost, low- power monitoring, and control products. ZigBee also has established an independent test and certification mechanism for interoperability and a recognizable branding for products which have successfully passed testing.

3. Does the world really need another networking standard?

Absolutely. Until ZigBee no standards existed for wireless sensor and control networks. The space was not effectively addressed by broadband wireless solutions like WiFi or WiMax or even by the cable replacement solutions like Bluetooth. Sensor and control networks need the ability to scale to large sizes, need to be self organizing and self healing, and must be really power efficient for long term battery operation. Of course, they must ultimately be really low cost. High data rate is not that important and 250kbps is more than adequate for the tasks they need to perform.

4. Who are your most influential OEM members?

We have so many good ones. To name a few-- Honeywell, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Philips, Control 4, Samsung, Siemens, Huawei, Schneider Electric, Johnson Controls, LG, NEC, Epson, Cisco, Vantage Controls, Crestron, Easton, Invensys, Trane, Nuri Telecom. And I know I am leaving some out so I apologize to any of you that I have missed.

5. We see more proprietary 802.15.4 applications than ZigBee applications. Is there a risk of fragmentation in the market?

When it comes to the sensor and control space, we are seeing a steady convergence to ZigBee based solutions using 15.4. 15.4 has other uses but these do not fragment the core ZigBee market.

6. Was the choice of the 2.4 GHz radio based on more general, global availability or were there other factors involved?

Clearly this is application driven. 2.4 is currently the most popular band with the ZigBee platform manufacturers, primarily because it is global and a lot of the early, more visible, consumer applications have global markets. The small antenna size and the availability of cheap implementations helps as well. For applications that are more regional or closed, like Automated Meter Reading or certain industrial applications, that can benefit from the more flexible propagation characteristics of the sub 1 gig band, 900 is a good choice. We are now starting to see multiple sources for sub 1 gig implementations as well. ZigBee’s excellent immunity to interference allows exceptional performance in both bands so ultimately it is the application and market that drives the choice.

7. We have heard comments from both Bob Metcalfe and Robert Poor that the sweet spot for ZigBee solutions is in devices that already have embedded micro controllers. Do you agree with that?

Most definitely. Billions of micro-controllers are shipped every year and they find their way into all sorts of devices that would benefit from having a network connection either to share information or receive instructions for external control. The fact that there are billions shipped reinforces just how vast this market is.

8. What, in your opinion, is the sweet spot for ZigBee applications?

Is this the disguised killer app question? For the next couple of years, home and commercial building monitoring and control functions and things which result in better energy management and enhance security will be the most popular. Included in that are telecom services provided by mobile phone carriers. Health care and monitoring the elderly will become increasing important over the next 5 years as well over 30% of the population is 65 or older.

9. Is ZigBee formerly known as 802.15.4?

15.4 is the MAC and PHY layers of the ZigBee platform solution. IEEE did a fine job on the radio so ZigBee saw no need to reinvent that wheel and could focus on completing the higher stack layers to create a complete standard.

10. Is there anything else you would like to tell our readers as a final note?

Just a simple reminder of some basic things about ZigBee. Members of the Alliance chose to invest people and money to be there compared to other groups, which are really more like user communities. It is the only OPEN GLOBAL standard in this space. It is the only solution with multiple independent sources of supply directly competing for the business resulting in competitive prices points, which are already equal to or better than far less functional offerings.

I encourage your readers to come out and see first hand the power of ZigBee whenever we’re in their neighborhood. Next month, ZigBee is hosting its second hands on Developer’s Conference in Chicago, June 5-7 and the following week on June 15, ZigBee members and developers from all over the world will be meeting in San Jose for an Open House and Exposition. The latest products and systems will be on hand for everyone to see. Details of both events are on the ZigBee web site.

More information about the ZigBee Alliance here...

This interview ran in our May 8, 2006 newsletter issue.