With the continuous development of technology, the concept of smart homes is deeply rooted in people’s hearts, and people are constantly using their intelligence to create new lives. Bill Gates was the first user of smart homes, and many people may think that smart homes are high-end devices that only wealthy people like Bill Gates can use. However, this is not the case. With the popularization of WIFI and the development of 5G technology, smart homes have gradually entered the public eye, and only a smart socket or speaker is needed to achieve smart living. Smart wireless switches are important products in smart homes, and the commonly used wireless control technologies for smart switches are WiFi and ZigBee. Next, let’s take a detailed look at the differences between WiFi smart switch vs ZigBee smart switch.
The Concept of Smart Switch
Smart switches can be divided into two types based on the type of wireless protocol: WIFI version and ZigBee version, as WIFI version uses WIFI wireless protocol, while ZigBee version uses ZigBee wireless protocol. So what are WIFI and ZigBee communication protocols? Before distinguishing them, let’s first understand the basic definitions and concepts related to WIFI and ZigBee.
WiFi Smart Switch
WIFI smart switch is based on WiFi wireless protocol for communication, thereby achieving intelligent control such as remote switching.
WIFI wireless protocol: full name Wireless Fidelity, also known as 802.11b standard, also known as WIFI or WLAN function.
WIFI smart switch is the most widely used wireless communication technology and currently the fastest wireless technology in terms of transmission speed; However, there are also drawbacks such as high cost, poor security, weak stability, and high power consumption.
The capacity of WiFi communication protocol is relatively small. If multiple smart devices in the home are connected to WiFi, the signal transmission between these devices will be very slow. If there are too many devices, it may even cause communication congestion, and the signal cannot be transmitted to the corresponding devices, which will cause these smart devices to malfunction.
ZigBee Smart Switch
ZigBee smart switch is based on ZigBee wireless protocol for communication, achieving intelligent control such as remote switching.
ZigBee wireless protocol: ZigBee is an advanced communication protocol based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. Zigbee is a protocol used for low-power, wireless network communication and has a wide range of applications in the field of the Internet of Things. As a mature wireless communication technology, Zigbee protocol provides a reliable and flexible solution for communication and control between various smart devices.
The Difference of WiFi Smart Switch and ZigBee Smart Switch
Functional Application
WiFi and ZigBee smart switches have the same functions and applications, both of which can be remotely controlled through mobile phones and voice controlled through smart speakers.
Is It Dependent on the Network
WiFi wireless protocol: supports controlling home appliances through an app, but the problem is that if the home network is disconnected, the control function will fail; ZigBee wireless protocol: It also supports controlling home appliances through an app, and can still be used normally even if the network is disconnected at home.
Application Features
The signal transmission of WiFi needs to be achieved through the network. In the case of network disconnection, the communication function of WiFi cannot be realized, and the smart devices connected to it cannot be remotely controlled. Moreover, WIFI cannot connect too many devices. If too many devices are connected, the WiFi signal will be very weak, and the remote control delay will be very high.
ZigBee devices will form a grid between them, and when new devices join the BigZee network, the grid size will be expanded, which will make the control of the devices more stable.
Power Consumption Issue
There is also a significant difference between the two, apart from whether they are connected to the internet or not, which affects usage. WiFi has high power consumption, and unplugged devices such as doors, windows, and human sensors are powered by built-in batteries. If the power consumption is high, frequent charging or battery replacement is required, which can cause trouble and a bad experience for users. In contrast, ZigBee has lower power consumption. In low-power standby mode, only two No. 5 dry batteries can support one node to work for 6-24 months or even longer, while WiFi can only work for a few hours. This is a prominent advantage of ZigBee and is in line with the requirements of low power consumption.
Transmission Speed
ZigBee is a low-power, low-speed transmission with a maximum transmission speed of 250 kbps. Due to the small amount of data transmitted by most devices in smart homes, a large part of it is control data. The transmission rate of ZigBee can meet the signal transmission needs of the vast majority of smart home devices. ZigBee is widely used in smart home systems.
In contrast, WiFi has a much higher transmission rate and is currently the fastest technology, reaching up to 11Mbit/s.
Spread Distance
WiFi, like ZigBee, is a short-range wireless technology used in offices and homes. ZigBee technology mainly uses 2.4GHz ISM frequency band, which has weak diffraction ability and wall penetration ability, and is easily affected by obstacles. It has a short propagation distance, with an effective propagation distance of generally 10-75m, and is mainly suitable for small office areas and home use. In the 2.4GHz frequency band, WiFi uses radio wave transmission to achieve point-to-point wireless communication between base stations and terminals. The link layer uses Ethernet protocol as the core to achieve addressing and verification of information transmission. The transmission range is wide, with a coverage range of up to 100m, and can even cover the entire building.
Network Capacity
With the development of smart homes, there will be more and more smart appliances in the home. After the number of devices increases, the load on the router will be very large. Using WiFi protocol requires the use of WiFi bandwidth resources, but WiFi can only connect to limited devices. Ordinary home routers can carry about 16 devices. The ZigBee protocol does not require WiFi resources and has large-scale networking capabilities. ZigBee adopts a mesh network structure, and each BigBee device is a node in this mesh structure. Nodes can be connected to each other to form a mesh, and new devices joining will become new nodes. The ZigBee network can manage up to 65000 network nodes, with each network supporting 65000 nodes and carrying more than 100 devices, fully meeting the communication needs of smart homes. With the continuous development of smart homes, the number of switches, lighting, and appliances will definitely far exceed 16, and WiFi has significant limitations.
Cost Issue
For a product, cost issues cannot be ignored. ZigBee simplifies the protocol significantly, reducing the requirements for communication controllers, and ZigBee is free of protocol patent fees, with a price of approximately $2 per chip. WiFi chips have relatively high hardware requirements, with common WiFi solutions consisting of an RF front-end and baseband. All protocol stacks need to be completed on the host MCU/CPU, and the vast majority of MCUs/CPUs require running Linux, so they are all 2-chip solutions. The cost of a single-chip WiFi solution is frighteningly high, around 7-10 US dollars.
However, due to the widespread popularity of WiFi, WIFI networks are already very common in many households. Therefore, buying a WIFI smart switch and directly connecting to the internet can be used without the need to configure other gateways. Therefore, compared to WiFi switches, ZigBee switches are more expensive because ZigBee gateways require additional fees, but ZigBee is widely used in smart home IoT applications. The purchase of smart switches should be judged based on the actual situation. If there are not many smart devices, use WiFi switches. If there are many smart devices, use ZigBee switches.
summary
Both WIFI protocol and ZigBee protocol have their own advantages and disadvantages, and it is not meaningful to forcefully distinguish between the two. Only by combining the needs of one’s own product can the most suitable technology be selected. WIFI intelligent opening: fast transmission speed and high efficiency; However, WiFi smart switches have disadvantages such as high cost, poor security, weak stability, high power consumption, and failure without a network, and the number of connected devices is limited. ZigBee smart switch: low transmission rate, large capacity, strong stability, but ZigBee switches require separate gateway configuration to work, resulting in high cost.
Each user’s situation may be different. Choosing a WIFI type smart switch, in addition to the advantages of the WIFI protocol itself, must also take into account the advantages of the WIFI network that has been basically popularized. It can be directly purchased and connected to the internet for use, which is relatively user-friendly and has no threshold for use; And users who choose ZigBee smart switches mainly consider that devices connected based on ZigBee have large capacity, good stability, and are widely used in IoT device control. At the same time, they isolate the IoT from the WIFI network we use, so that they are not interfered with by each other.
