Overview#

Zigbee refers both to:

• An open standard for reliable, cost-effective, low power, wireless device-to-device communication of thousands of devices in a single network.

• An alliance of over 400 companies who together are defining and using the standard to communicate in a variety of applications such as smart energy and commercial building automation.

For more information on Zigbee, see Zigbee Fundamentals.

Zigbee Green Power (ZGP) is included in the Zigbee 3.0 specification (Z3). ZGP enables battery-less (energy-harvesting) or ultra-long battery devices to securely join Zigbee PRO networks. Common ZGP devices include switches, sensors, detectors, and buttons. ZGP uses a new compact packet format that minimizes the amount of energy used to transmit data. This allows energy-harvesting devices to operate successfully and battery-powered devices to operate for periods in excess of what would be possible on a standard Zigbee network before requiring a replacement battery.

For more information on Zigbee Green Power, visit http://www.zigbee.org/zigbee-for-developers/zigbee-3-0/. There are a number of valuable ZGP resources available for review and download.