| Does Z-Wave have widespread support from consumer electronics manufacturers? |
| Yes. The Z-Wave Alliance has over 70 members, all of whom are working on bringing Z-Wave based products to market. This Alliance includes a number of former and current ZigBee members who have chosen to base their residential control systems on Z-Wave. |
| Which applications are best suited for Z-Wave? |
| The Z-Wave protocol is designed for residential control systems. Typically these systems have between five and two hundred plus nodes distributed around the home and garden area. The system is designed for ease-of-installation because a typical installation is made and managed by the homeowners themselves. A typical control node is a lamp, light switch, thermostat, remote control, or motor to drive garage doors or curtains. The amount of data transmitted is small but reaction time has to be fast, and communication must be reliable. The Z-Wave system is designed to be low cost, so the mass consumer market is now able to enjoy the benefits of home control systems. |
| What is the range of a Z-Wave device? |
| The range of a Z-Wave signal is strongly influenced by the environment; for example the number of walls that the signal has to move through. Typical ranges achieved by Z-Wave customers are 30 meters (90 feet) indoor and over 100 meters (300 feet) outdoors in the open air. |
| What kind of modulation are you using? |
BFSK, +/- 20kHz modulation on carrier.
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| In which frequency band does Z-Wave communicate? |
Z-Wave operates on a variety of sub-GigaHertz frequencies throughout the world:
Australia: 921.42 MHz
China: 868.42 MHz
CEPT*: 868.42 MHz
India: 865.22 MHz
Japan: 951-956 MHz
Hong Kong: 919.82 MHz
Malaysia: 868.10 MHz
New Zealand: 921.42 MHz
Singapore: 868.42 MHz
UAE: 868.42 MHz
USA/Canada: 908.42 MHz
Brazil: 908.42 MHz
*CEPT is the European regional organization dealing with postal and telecommunications issues and presently has 45 Members: Albania, Andorra, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and Vatican.
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| Why doesn't the Z-Wave Radio use the 2.4GHz band? |
| The sub-GHz frequency range used by Z-Wave throughout the world has a physical propagation range that is approximately 2.5 times the equivalent 2.4GHz signal. This allows for the Z-Wave radio to consume less power compared to wireless devices that operates in the 2.4GHz band. Apart from that, the 2.4 GHz band is very crowded with, for example, Wi-Fi networks. |
| How fast does data move over a Z-Wave network? |
| The Z-Wave protocol is designed to run at 9600 bits per second. A typical control instruction to switch or dim a light is only a few bytes in length, and so response times are very fast. |
| Is Z-Wave a mesh network protocol? |
Yes. The main advantage of a mesh network is that no central controller is needed.
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| What is routing? |
Z-Wave is a routing protocol, which allows commands to be routed from one node to another until the command reaches its end-destination. This feature is very useful to extend range, and is also used to route commands around sources of interference. The result is a very reliable and robust network that can provide full home and yard coverage.
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| How many nodes can be present in a single Z-Wave network? |
| A single Z-Wave network can include 232 nodes. If necessary, more than one network can be bridged to extend the number of nodes further, although this is normally not needed in a residential environment. |
| Does Z-Wave support battery-operated devices? |
| Yes. A typical Z-Wave network contains a mixture of AC powered and battery powered nodes. Battery power is used for remote controls, sensors, and switches. AC power is used for devices, which require power to operate, such as lamps and power sockets. |
| What is the average battery lifetime? |
| The lifetime of a battery depends on the number of times the node is switched on. The Z-Wave system is designed for low power consumption so many applications will obtain years of life from one standard battery. |
| Can a battery-operated device take part in routing? |
| Yes, although a routing device has to be listening all the time, which shortens the battery lifetime. Normally a Z-Wave system will be designed to use the AC powered nodes for routing and the battery-operated nodes will wake up when needed. |
| How long is the connection time? |
| There is no connection time. Nodes remain members of the network and keep their addresses after initial installation. |
| How long does it take to start transmitting data? |
A device listens for ongoing traffic before starting to transmit in order to avoid collisions. If there is no network traffic, a node can start to transmit immediately.
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| What is contained in a Z-Wave single chip? |
A Z-Wave single chip is a highly integrated mixed-signal system-on-chip. The main blocks are:
- Radio transceiver
- Microprocessor
- 32kB flash memory, containing the Z-Wave protocol and the application
- System interfaces, including digital and analogue interfaces to connect external devices such as sensors.
- A 3DES engine to ensure confidentiality and authentication (100 series)
- Triac controller, to reduce the module cost of dimming applications
For detailed information, please refer to the data sheets published elsewhere on the web site. |
| How does Zensys guarantee interoperability? |
| Zensys and the Z-Wave Alliance partners cooperate in a certification program to ensure interoperability and develop standard device classes. |
| What is the Z-Wave Alliance? |
The Z-Wave Alliance is an organization of companies with the following vision:
The Z-Wave Alliance members lead the home controls market, providing systems that deliver increased comfort, convenience, safety and security. Z-Wave based systems are easy to install and use, and allow products from all members to communicate seamlessly.
The mission of the Alliance is:
- Promote consumer recognition of the Z-Wave brand as the trusted standard for wireless home control
- Ensure interoperability between systems and devices from all members
- Provide processes for collaboration on future products and services |
