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Introduction
Bluetooth (over IEEE 802.15.1), ultra-wideband (UWB, over IEEE 802.15.3), ZigBee (over IEEE 802.15.4), and Wi-Fi (over IEEE 802.11) are four protocol standards for short range wireless communications with low power consumption (2.4/5Ghz).
From an application point of view:
Bluetooth is intended for a cordless mouse, keyboard, and hands-free headset
UWB is oriented to high-bandwidth multimedia links
ZigBee is designed for reliable wirelessly networked monitoring and control networks
Wi-Fi is directed at computer to computer connections as an extension or substitution of cabled networks
reference: ResearchGate
More info are here:
A Comparative Study of Wireless Protocols: Bluetooth, UWB, ZigBee, and Wi-Fi
Some abstractions are below.
Main Features
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ZigBee
ZigBee over 802.15.4 protocol can meet a wider variety of real industrial needs, for example the long-term battery operation, greater useful range, flexibility in a number of dimensions, and reliability of the mesh networking architecture.
ZigBee provides self-organized, multi-hop, and reliable mesh networking with long battery lifetime.
The maximum number of devices belonging to the network’s building are over 65000 for a ZigBee mesh.
ZigBee devices can communicate with the next node in the network (repeater function – mesh): this ensures connection to a single central gateway hub even when it is not directly reachable from all the nodes in the network, see image below.
Beware that, however normally not all battery-powered ZigBee devices implement the repeater function (mesh) to save batteries, certainly all powered devices also work as repeaters (mesh).
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If you are interested in how to use the ZigBee in Home Assistant (hassio) look here.
LINK
See also the:
COMPARISON OF CHARACTERISTICS FOR DIFFERENT WIRELESS PROTOCOLS – Bluetooth, UWB, ZigBee/IP, Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, GSM/GPRS