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One such technology is the ZigBee standard which offers the mass production promises of adding a radio to anything for less than one dollar in the next few years. ZigBee has been described as "The Internet of Things". However, while it is a fine standard it is not alone in offering the low cost, low bandwidth, capabilities that manufacturers of everything from light switches to toy dinosaurs are looking for.

One of the key capabilities of this next generation of wireless protocols is Mesh Networking; a system that enables nodes on the network to act as routers for other nodes which, in turn, can build up a network on their own. Such a network can be self-repairing and self-optimising, making for very reliable connections with the minimum of configuration. It are these qualities which has made automation a key targeted application for Zigbee.

Home automation has something of a sleazy reputation: the Casanova invites a girl to his apartment on some pretext; as she sits down he flicks the switch that closes the curtains, dims the lights, and triggers the seductive sounds of Barry White as the king-sized bed slides from the wall. Few need convincing of the value of controlling the television from their armchair, but selling automatic heating, curtains or anything else is going to be a great deal harder. Technology generally needs to solve a problem, and while demonstrations of "The House of The Future" might be fun, such concepts rarely solve problems that people actually want addressed. Companies looking to simply add radio capabilities to everything will need to look elsewhere for their killer application.

Taking a ZigBee deployment as an example; an office block might have ZigBee-enabled lighting installed, and ZigBee-enabled control panels mounted on the walls. The lights and control panels would connect themselves together, forming a network covering the entire building. However, in this set-up the panel would have no idea which set of lights it should control. At this stage the lights are configured (at the factory) to only take commands from a Master Controller, which could take the form of a PDA or laptop used by the designer. The designer then goes to each floor and asks the Master Controller to flash the lights nearby, so he can identify them, and he then links those lights to controllers on that floor. Once the configuration is complete the lights can be controlled from their own floor, but the Master Controller can be used from anywhere in the building to control any of the lights. Such a building could automatically dim the lights when no-one was around, and the US Energy Department estimates that this alone could save American companies $8 billion a year! Applications like this don't require massive bandwidth, and ZigBee certainly makes no attempt to provide it as it only operates at 250Kbps. However, the technology does offer an enormous battery life (measured in years) and the relative simplicity of the standard means that Zigbee silicon can be manufactured at low cost - an essential requirement if the technology is to become ubiquitous in the office, as well as the home.

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