Page 66 - Security Today, July/August 2018
P. 66

TECH BRIEF
WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS
TECHNOLOGY
APPLICATION
SUCCESS METRICS
DATA RATE
RANGE
Wi-Fi
LAN Internet
Speed Flexibility
.1-7 GBps
100m
Li-Fi
LAN Internet
Security Speed Cost
1-3.5 GBps
10m
Bluetooth
PAN,
Cost,Convenience
48 MBps
Mobile Credentials
ZigBee
Sensor Networks
Reliability, Power Scalability, Cost
.250MBps
70-300m
industrial, scientific and medical gadgets.
Bluetooth’s short-range transmitters have very low power con-
sumption and are more secure than wireless networks that operate over longer ranges, such as Wi-Fi.
What applications is it best for? Bluetooth is a global 2.4 GHz personal area network for short-range wireless communication.
Device-to-device file transfers, mobile credentials, wireless speak- ers and wireless headsets are often enabled with Bluetooth.
ZIGBEE
What is it? ZigBee is a 2.4 GHz mesh local area network (LAN) pro- tocol. It was developed as an IEEE 802.15.4-based specification for a suite of high-level communication protocols used to create personal area networks with small, low-power digital radios.
How does it work? ZigBee devices transmit data over long dis- tances by passing it through a mesh network of intermediate devices to reach more distant ones. ZigBee networks have a defined rate of 250 MBps and are secured by 128-bit symmetric encryption keys.
What applications is it best for? ZigBee is typically used in low- data-rate applications that require high scalability, long battery life, and secure networking. It is simpler and less expensive than Blue- tooth or Wi-Fi and is commonly used for home, building and in- dustrial automation applications, such as controlled lighting and thermostats, home energy monitors, smart metering, medical device data collection, traffic management systems and other low-power, low-bandwidth needs.
Andy Jimenez is the vice president of technology at Anixter.
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