Since the dawn of the Internet, people have hyped that one day we would be able to control home appliances remotely, from our offices. Well, this never materialized. Then came the various wireless technologies, especially Bluetooth; home networking could now be described like fruit in a tree, ready to be harvested. Once again, the fruit seemed to grow very slowly. We are still waiting for it to mature. However, where there is a will, there is a way. Here comes the ZigBee.

ZigBee is a low-power, low-speed, wireless networking standard. In an era of insatiability, anything less than ten megabits per second is not tolerable. Why would anyone bother to design a network with a maximum speed of only 250 kilobits per second? If you are curious about the answer, this paper is for you.

The author explains why a low-power, low-cost solution is needed for many devices in the home. For example, no one likes to climb a ladder to periodically change the battery of a smoke detector on the ceiling. Also, if your house is on fire, you need the smoke detector to send an alarm to remote devices and places, not just hum without anyone listening. Therefore, the smoke detector should have a long battery life, and should be networked wirelessly. ZigBee is supposed to be the technology to address this.

The paper is well written and easy to understand, even for novices. If you are interested in wireless networks, or in home networking or automation, this is recommended reading.