Zigbee Alliance Makes Namesake Spec Publicly Available

(Business News & Technology News, 9 Jul 2005)

The ZigBee Alliance has made its namesake specification publicly available so that universities, research institutions, companies, and individuals will be able to access the specification and develop applications for noncommercial purposes.
The ZigBee Alliance ratified the ZigBee standard, which is designed for low-cost, low-power wireless sensor networks in remote-monitoring, home-control, and building-network applications, in December. And the specification will be made publicly available later this month, according to Bob Heile, ZigBee Alliance chairman.
"The public availability of the ZigBee specification will allow [people] to gain a better understanding of the technology to decide how it will benefit their wireless networks," Heile said in an e-mail.
The next steps for the ZigBee Alliance and its member companies, Heile said, are to continue to develop the specification, expand upon the number of applications, finalize standard methods for implementing bridges and gateways, and help member companies create ZigBee products.
"We think this announcement is a milestone in the adoption of the ZigBee specification, because it allows the public viewing of the specification, which until now has been members only," Heile said.
The move will also bring about "new and innovative" applications for the technology and produce leaner, more efficient stack implementations, he said.
As for engineers, the availability of the spec will help them decide whether ZigBee is appropriate for their development efforts, Heile said.