Sunyield Technologies Launched the World’s First ZigBee Overall Test Plan

In May 2017, Sunyield Technologies has launched the world’s first ZigBee overall test plan, which can be applied to SPR-650 production line OTA rapid test system, SY series spherical near field measurement systems, and radio test to test such parameters as packet loss rate, input power, throughput, total radiated power and total isotropic sensitivity.

ZigBee is an IEEE 802.15.4-based specification for a suite of high-level communication protocols used to create personal area networks with small, low-power digital radios designed for small scale projects which need wireless connection. Hence, ZigBee is a low-power, low data rate, and close proximity (i.e., personal area) wireless ad hoc network. ZigBee protocols are intended for embedded applications requiring and tolerating low data rates. A ZigBee network consists of one coordinator and several routers and end devices.

A simple ZigBee network schematic is shown as follows:

Black node indicates Coordinator, Red node indicates Router, and White node indicates End-Device.

ZigBee Features

• Low data rate: 10KB/s~250KB /s, focus on low rate transmission application;
• Low power consumption: in low power standby mode, two No. 5 batteries can last for 6 to 24 months.
• Low cost: low data rate and simple protocol help to greatly reduce cost
• Large network capacity: the network can accommodate 65,000 devices
• Short time delay: the time delay is usually 15ms~30ms.
• Safe: ZigBee provides data integrity check and authentication function, and adopts AES-128 encryption algorithm.
• Small effective range: the effective coverage is 10~75m, and the specific coverage depends on the actual transmit power size and various application patterns.
• Flexible operating frequency band: the operating frequency bands are 2.4GHz, 868MHz (Europe) and 915MHz (USA), and they are all unlicensed (free) frequency bands.
• Reliable transmission: collision avoidance policies are adopted to reserve dedicated slots for services requiring fixed bandwidth

More about Zigbee
Wireless communication technologies for internet of things fall into two categories: the first category is short distance communication technology such as ZigBee, WiFi, Bluetooth, Z-wave etc. the second is LPWAN (Low-Power Wide-Area Network), i.e. telecommunication technologies for wide area network. LPWAN can be divided into two categories, a) technologies as LoRa and SigFlx that operate on unauthorized spectrum; b) technologies work under authorized spectrum, 2/3/4G cellular communications technology supported by 3GPP, such as EC-GSM, LTE, Cat-m, and NB-IoT etc. Internet of things will be the next important productivity to promote rapid development of the world. It is another trillion dollar market after the communication network. On the one hand, Internet of things can increase economic efficiency and greatly save costs; on the other hand, it can provide technological impetus for global economy recovery.
As new technologies are emerging with the development of wireless communication industry, Sunyield Technologies will pay close attention to the latest developments of 3GPP and CTIA, and follow up the technological development of ZigBee, Z-wave, LTE Cat-m and NB-IoT to develop related test plans at the first time to promote the R&D process of related technologies.