Radio Communication Protocols - Digi XBee Zigbee Mesh Kit User Manual

Additional resources
900 MHz radio frequency band is for unlicensed use only in North America and Australia.
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868 MHz radio frequency band is for unlicensed use only in Europe.
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865 MHz radio frequency band is for unlicensed use only in India.
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2.4 GHz is an unlicensed radio frequency band used worldwide.
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2. What is the maximum range your application needs to communicate?
900 MHz, 868 MHz, and 865 MHz XBee modules offer much greater range than 2.4 GHz XBee
modules.

Radio communication protocols

XBee modules support multiple wireless protocols which are suitable for many different network
topologies. Open standards include Zigbee, 802.15.4, and Wi-Fi. Digi has also developed proprietary
protocols such as Multipoint and DigiMesh. The following list includes the supported protocols:
IEEE 802.15.4
IEEE 802.15.4 is a standard which specifies the physical layer and media access control for low-rate
wireless personal area networks. It is the basis for the Zigbee, ISA100.11a, WirelessHART, and MiWi
specifications, each of which further extends the standard by developing the upper layers which are
not defined in IEEE 802.15.4. The modules included in this kit are IEEE 802.15.4. The standard is
designed specifically for energy efficient communications in a point-to-point or a point-to-multipoint
configuration and includes sleeping and security.
Zigbee / Zigbee SE (Smart Energy)
Zigbee is a specification for a suite of high-level communication protocols. Its main purpose is to
create a meshed network topology (hierarchy) to allow a number of devices to communicate among
them.
XBee® Zigbee® Mesh Kit
Use:
Single point communications.
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Fast connections between two devices.
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Use:
Non-expandible networks that need low power or intermittent
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functioning.
XBee buying guide
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