The comparison of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and ZigBee 1.

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance that may be used with certified products that belong to a class of wireless local area network (WLAN) devices based on the IEEE 802.11 standards. Wi-Fi allows local area networks (LANs) to be deployed without wires for client devices, typically reducing the costs of network deployment and expansion. Spaces where cables cannot be run, such as outdoor areas and historical buildings, can host wireless LANs. Wireless network adapters are now built into most laptops. The price of chipsets for Wi-Fi continues to drop, making it an economical networking option included in even more devices. Wi-Fi has become widespread in corporate infrastructures. Different competitive brands of access points and client network interfaces are inter-operable at a basic level of service. Products designated as Wi-Fi Certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance are backwards compatible. Wi-Fi is a global set of standards. Unlike mobile phones, any standard Wi-Fi device will work anywhere in the world. A typical wireless router using 802.11b or 802.11g with a stock antenna might have a range of 32 m (120 ft) indoors and 95 m (300 ft) outdoors. Due to reach requirements for wireless LAN applications, power consumption is fairly high compared to some other standards. Because of the very limited practical range of Wi-Fi, mobile use is essentially confined to such applications as inventory taking machines in warehouses or retail spaces, barcode reading devices at check-out stands or receiving / shipping stations. 2. Bluetooth Bluetooth is a standard and a communications protocol primarily designed for low power consumption, with a short range (power-class-dependent: 100m, 10m and 1m, but ranges vary in practice) based on low-cost transceiver microchips in each device. Bluetooth makes it possible for these devices to communicate with each other when they are in range. In most cases the effective range of class 2 devices is extended if they connect to a class 1 transceiver, compared to a pure class 2 network. This is accomplished by the higher sensitivity and transmission power of Class 1 devices. Bluetooth uses a radio technology called frequency-hopping spread spectrum, which chops up the data being sent and transmits chunks of it on up to 79 frequencies. Bluetooth provides a way to connect and exchange information between devices such as mobile phones, telephones, laptops, personal computers, printers, Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, digital cameras, and video game consoles through a secure, globally unlicensed Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) 2.4 GHz short-range radio frequency bandwidth. The Bluetooth specifications are developed and licensed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). The Bluetooth SIG consists of companies in the areas of telecommunication, computing, networking, and consumer electronics. Bluetooth exists in many products, such as telephones, modems and headsets. The technology is useful when transferring information between two or more devices that are near each other in lowbandwidth situations. Bluetooth is commonly used to transfer sound data with telephones (i.e., with a Bluetooth headset) or byte data with hand-held computers (transferring files).

3. ZigBee ZigBee is a low-cost, low-power, wireless mesh networking proprietary standard. The low cost allows the technology to be widely deployed in wireless control and monitoring applications, the low powerusage allows longer life with smaller batteries, and the mesh networking provides high reliability and larger range. ZigBee operates in the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio bands; 868 MHz in Europe, 915 MHz in the USA and Australia, and 2.4 GHz in most jurisdictions worldwide. The technology is intended to be simpler and less expensive than other WPANs such as Bluetooth. Because ZigBee can activate (go from sleep to active mode) in 15 msec or less, the latency can be very low and devices can be very responsive particularly compared to Bluetooth wake-up delays, which are typically around three seconds. Because ZigBees can sleep most of the time, average power consumption can be very low, resulting in long battery life. ZigBee protocols are intended for use in embedded applications requiring low data rates and low power consumption. ZigBees current focus is to define a general-purpose, inexpensive, selforganizing mesh network that can be used for industrial control, embedded sensing, medical data collection, smoke and intruder warning, building automation, home automation, etc. The resulting network will use very small amounts of power individual devices must have a battery life of at least two years to pass ZigBee certification. 4. The key characteristics of Zigbee, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth ZigBee 10-100 meters Range Networking Topology Ad-hoc, peer to peer, star, or mesh Operating Frequency 868 MHz (Europe) 900-928 MHz (NA), 2.4 GHz (worldwide) Complexity (Device Low and application impact) Power Consumption Very low (low power is (Battery option and a design goal) life) 128 AES plus Security application layer security Industrial control and Typical Applications monitoring, sensor networks, building automation, home control and automation, toys, games Wi-Fi 50-100 meters Point to hub 2.4 and 5 GHz Bluetooth 10 100 meters Ad-hoc, very small networks 2.4 GHz

High

High

High

Medium

64 and encryption Wireless connectivity, broadband access

128

bit

LAN Wireless connectivity between devices such Internet as phones, PDA, laptops, headsets