ZigBee Series 1 or 2?

Wireless & IoT
1

Hi, I’m a newbie ZigBee user. From what I understand, both Series 1 and Series 2 are capable of Point to Point, Star and Mesh network topologies according to http://www.digi.com/support/kbase/kbase … tl?id=2213.

For my project, I want to implement either a Star or Mesh topology. Aside from the power consumption and transmission power differences, is there any reason to choose one over the other?

Thanks,

Eric

2

1- ZigBee is a protocol not the RF modules which are called XBee and are available in series 1 and series 2.

The XBee Series 1 runs a lower 802.15.4 protocol whereas the XBee series 2 runs the ZigBee protocol (on top of the 802.15.4) or ZNet.

The XBee Series 1 is much easier to use for simpler connections.

The XBee Series 1 module can be loaded with Digi’s Mesh protocol called DigiMesh.

Dig deeper into Digi’s web site and read all you can about the various protocols to see which may be best for your application. Maybe even call Digi (their support is very good) to discuss the best solution.

Do your homework first and know what your network topology is, number of nodes, distances to determine if a distance node needs a repeater (router) to reach the destination. Is all data from to the coordinator? Or is data passed between other nodes?

3

for hobby/student purposes, definitely Series 1.

Series 2 are ZigBee only and that’s rarely needed for the above. Nor is the complexity prudent for point to point or star.

Series 1 can, later, run DigiMesh, arguably better than ZigBee.

Unless your objective is to learn ZigBee itself, the network layer.

ZigBee is to IEEE 802.15.4 what TCP/IP is to 802.11 or 802.3

4

Great! Thanks guys!