Z-Wave Connectivity Technologies in IoT

Zwave (or Z wave or Z-wave) is a protocol for communication among devices used for home automation.

It uses RF for signaling and control.

Operating frequency is 908.42 MHz in the US & 868.42 MHz in Europe.

Mesh network topology is the main mode of operation, and can support 232 nodes in a network.

Zwave Global Operating Frequency

Zwave utilizes GFSK modulation and Manchester channel encoding.

A central network controller devices sets-up and manages a Zwave network.

Each logical Zwave network has 1 Home (Network) ID and multiple node IDs for the devices in it.

Nodes with different Home IDs cannot communicate with each other.

Network ID length=4 Bytes, Node ID length = 1 Byte.

GFSK

Gaussian frequency Shift Keying.
Baseband pulses are passed through a Gaussian filter prior to modulation.
Filtering operation smoothens the pulses consisting of streams of -1 and 1, and is known as Pulse shaping.
Pulse shaping limits the modulated spectrum width.

Uses source routed network mesh topology using 1 primary controller.

Devices communicate with one another when in range.

When devices are not in range, messages are routed though different nodes to bypass obstructions created by household appliances or layout.

this process of bypassing radio dead-spots is done using a message called Healing.

As Zwave uses a source routed static network , mobile devices are excluded from the network and only static devices are considered.