Competition intensifies with WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, THREAD, etc.

In the era of the Internet of Things (IoT) and home automation, who will be the protagonist of short-range communication technology?

As short-range communication networks such as WiFi and Bluetooth are gaining attention as the means of communication required to connect home automation applications, competition between each communication technology is inevitable in the future.

Currently, the main short-range communications being applied to IoT devices for home automation include WiFi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, and THREAD. Each of these communication technologies has its own advantages and disadvantages in terms of power consumption, distance, and scalability, and is expanding its scope.

First, WiFi, a wireless LAN technology based on the IEEE 802.11 standard, emphasizes its stability and reliability as strengths, emphasizing the fact that it is already a well-known technology. WiFi can utilize mobile devices as gateways and has a wide range of applications. In particular, it has the advantage of being able to assign addresses to each protocol layer based on IPv6. On the other hand, it is pointed out as a disadvantage that it is a 'Star Network', a central computer concentration network, and that power consumption is relatively high.

In contrast, Bluetooth has the advantage of being a representative low-power communication technology, being able to utilize mobile devices, and being IPv6-based. However, Bluetooth also has the weakness of being a centralized network, which makes it unreliable, and being a new technology that is not well known compared to Zigbee.

Like Bluetooth, Zigbee, which has low-power characteristics as its strength, is a relatively well-known standard. It also has a wide range of applications in mesh networks. On the other hand, since it is not IP-based, it has the disadvantage of requiring a separate AP in the middle and not being able to use mobile devices as gateways.

This thread technology, which complements Zigbee, is a technology that became famous because of Nest, which was acquired by Google. It also has low energy, mesh network, and wide range. It also has the advantage of being based on IPv6, which was a disadvantage of Zigbee. However, it is a communication technology that is not yet well known compared to Zigbee, and it is unfortunate that it cannot be used in conjunction with mobile phones or tablets.

Each new version of communication technology addresses its weaknesses.

Each communication technology has its own strengths and weaknesses, sometimes competing and sometimes complementary, but the trend is to make up for the weaknesses as new versions are released. Jang Seung-taek, a manager in charge of wireless measurement equipment at Keysight Technologies, said, “WiFi is trying to strengthen its low energy characteristics in the new standard 802.11ah in 2016, and Zigbee also made Zigbee IP for smart energy 2.0 IP-based. In addition, there are many devices adopting Thread technology that covers the weaknesses of Zigbee.”

Some say that killer applications need to emerge alongside communications technology. “In the case of Bluetooth, there are many open platforms like WiFi, so it is expected to be activated once again as a short-range wireless communication technology in the IoT era,” said Jang Yong-dae, team leader at CETECOM. “However, there is no IoT killer application in Korea, so we will have to wait a bit longer for the devices we want to come out.”

One thing is clear: major short-range communication technologies that had been on the decline are resurfacing in the IoT era. These technologies are expanding their applications while competing with existing technologies or differentiating themselves from newly emerging technologies.

The battle of short-range communication technologies to take over the living room is just beginning.