The ZigBee Alliance announced today that they have enhanced their standard to offer a host of new features which will be available in the first quarter of next year.
Key features of the enhanced standard include:
- Group Devices -- developers will have the ability to create groups of devices while allowing individual devices to belong to multiple groups. The alliance provides the example of all lights in a home could be turned off, or all of the lights on a single floor or a single room, can be executed by pushing a single button.
- Maintenance – The ZigBee technology can prevent a single point-of-failure on the network and allows for replacement or repair of devices through the storage of a device's information onto a nearby device.
- Targeted Broadcasts – Broadcasts of commands can be specified for specific types of devices: routers, "awake" or "sleeping" devices.
- Over-the-Air Setup – Allows for new setup tools that can be develop to facilitate the addition of devices onto a network.
