Smart Home Wireless Technology Competition: WiFi and ZigBee Comparison

    At present, "wireless replacing wired" has become an irreversible trend worldwide, and this trend is even more obvious in the field of home Internet of Things. It can be said that home automation, commonly known as "smart home", has become an arena for advanced wireless technology. Different companies have adopted different technical solutions, and the results of use vary greatly. What are the advantages and disadvantages of WiFi and ZigBee, the most popular wireless technologies in the current smart home industry?

    Let's talk about WiFi first. The advantage of this wireless technology is that it has a low threshold for technology research and development and low product cost. Due to the low difficulty of technology development, many start-ups develop smart home products based on WiFi, but its disadvantages are also very obvious. First of all, the biggest problem with WiFi is that the security is very low, the wireless stability of the product is also relatively poor, and the user experience is not good. Recently, foreign media have reported that smart home products of companies such as Belkin in the United States were easily hacked by hackers. CCTV also recently reported that American hackers demonstrated how to use the "Snoopy" unmanned remote-controlled aircraft to easily obtain all the information of mobile phone users who have turned on the WiFi function. It is hard to imagine that if your neighbor can easily get all the information about your home, whether there is anyone at home, whether you are asleep, and even what movie you are watching, how can you sleep peacefully?

    Secondly, WiFi's high power consumption is also a major weakness, which also leads to its limited application in the field of smart homes. Due to its high power consumption, WiFi cannot be used in products such as smart door locks, infrared forwarding controllers, and various sensors, while smart door locks are one of the indispensable products of smart homes. Temperature and humidity sensors, light sensors, smoke detectors and other sensors are also indispensable parts of smart home systems.

    Thirdly, WiFi has low networking capabilities and limited expansion space. At present, the actual scale of WiFi networks generally does not exceed 16 devices, while the number of switches, lights, and home appliances in an ordinary home is far more than 16. Obviously, the number of devices that can be connected to the smart home system based on WiFi technology is very limited, and the future development space is limited.

    Compared with WiFi technology, ZigBee technology has obvious advantages. ZigBee technology has accumulated a lot of valuable experience in the industrial field. As we all know, the requirements of the industrial field are usually much higher than those of the civilian field. ZigBee technology was born in industrial places with complex application environments and has been tested for a long time in markets around the world. Here are some major advantages of ZigBee technology:

    ——High security. The security of ZigBee technology comes from its systematic design. So far, there has been no precedent of ZigBee technology being cracked in the world, while security incidents of wireless technologies such as WiFi, Bluetooth, and Z-Wave have occurred frequently. This shows its security status in the field of short-range wireless communications.

    ——Low power consumption. ZigBee technology uses an extremely low power consumption design. In theory, one battery can be used for more than 10 years, and in actual application, one battery can be used for about 2 years. This low power consumption technology makes it widely used in the field of smart homes, including smart door locks, infrared repeaters, temperature and humidity and other types of sensors.

    ——Strong networking capability. In theory, a ZigBee gateway can connect more than 65,000 devices. In actual applications, it can form a stable network of more than 100 types of devices. Such a network scale is far larger than WiFi, Z-Wave, Bluetooth and other technologies, and is sufficient to meet the needs of smart homes in the foreseeable future.

    Of course, ZigBee's shortcomings are also obvious, mainly the difficulty of product development, long development cycle, and high product cost. It is difficult for general start-ups to bear development risks. This is also an important reason why ZigBee technology is currently mastered by only a few companies in the world.

    In summary, WiFi faces a series of very embarrassing problems in the field of smart home. At present, more experts believe that WiFi is OK for some demonstration products such as smart products, but it is obviously not capable of making safe and reliable products for long-term home use. In the long run, ZigBee technology will have more advantages and application prospects.