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Andy Wheeler discusses Zigbee, Ember, and debugging at WSN-SIG

Andy Wheeler, CTO of Ember, discussed the latest Zigbee developments at the latest WSN-SIG meeting. According to Andy, the upcoming Zigbee standard release will do away with cluster-tree topology and support a mesh-like topology of router and end nodes. However, Zigbee router nodes will still not support duty-cycling, rather they must be “always on”. Bad news if you’re hoping to have that battery-powered network any time soon. As well, Zigbee is working to further define, well, what Zigbee means (at least for product purposes). There is Zigbee compliant (of which several tests define), Zigbee compatible (of which several types of compatibilities depend on multiple application profiles), and even Zigbee certified (of which depends on the type of compatibility and compliance but may also include other “custom” features) — oh, all of which have their own logos. If only the simplicity was inversely proportional to the length of that last sentence. So, how is Ember staying ahead of the game? Andy cites Ember’s development tools as a key differentiator. And I must say, the Ember Insight debugging/dev tools look impressive, spanning from chip to application. That’s a good thing for developer’s working on Zigbee ceritifi…complian….compatib….well, making Zigbee products.

On a side note, the WSN-SIG is expanding, geographically (Boston, Southern California) and in website content. If you would like to contribute, please contact Giovanni Tripodi at (wsnsig at melanetworks.com).

Intel Digital Home group does residential energy management

I had the opportunity to visit the Intel Digital Home group and see first hand their efforts in residential energy management and home automation. They have integrated wireless digital eletrical meters with Windows Media Center on an Intel platform, resulting in a visually impressive and technically interesting advanced HVAC automation prototype. For the last year or so, they have tested pre-cooling in a Folsom, CA house with success. The system also enables critical peak period load shedding, including HVAC and pool pump. Such a practical solution from an “entertainment” centric group! I think this great example of the availability and opportunity with readily available technologies to tap the large resource of residential “negawatts.”