Summary#

Zigbee shows excellent reliability and latency below the 200-millisecond timing typically required for human interaction with devices. The Zigbee networks are well behaved up through the 200 node networks we have tested, unless the broadcast frequency is pushed too high and then Zigbee shows increased latency.

As networks scale up, the added hops and broadcast congestion result in some increased latency. As packet payload increases, the latency across the network also increases, but this is a smaller impact when testing 5, 25, and 50 bytes of payload.

Follow-up Testing Considerations#

The testing described in this application note requires follow-up tests to further define the device behavior and network operations. The following specific items are noted for follow-up testing:

  1. Failure testing can also be added by dropping nodes out of this network during these tests to evaluate recovery time and impact on reliability.

  2. Testing should be performed with different device types running in System-on-Chip and Network Co-Processor (NCP) modes. Previous testing has revealed some differences between these modes of operation, so this should be further characterized.

Related Literature#

This application note has provided information on Zigbee mesh networking. For information on Zigbee and Thread mesh networking, and a comparison of all three technologies, refer to the following application notes: