Comments on: GainSpan receives funding for wireless sensors http://green.venturebeat.com/2007/12/18/gainspan-receives-funding-for-wireless-sensors/ News About Tech, Money and Innovation Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:13:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Daniel Kurtz http://green.venturebeat.com/2007/12/18/gainspan-receives-funding-for-wireless-sensors/comment-page-1/#comment-744578 Daniel Kurtz Sun, 20 Jan 2008 20:12:20 +0000 http://venturebeat.com/2007/12/18/gainspan-receives-funding-for-wireless-sensors/#comment-744578 Ember and Squidbee make "ZigBee" sensors, not WiFi sensors. "ZigBee" is based on IEEE802.15.4, "WiFi" is based on IEEE802.11. A "Wi-Fi" sensor is compatible with products certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance, a trade-group that publishes interoperability standards and performs compatibility testing for IEEE802.11 devices. This is very similar to the relationship between the ZigBee Alliance and IEEE802.15.4. The ZigBee Alliance published the ZigBee standard, based on IEEE082.15.4, and completely incompatible with IEEE802.11. It is also not an "open-source" standard, since it is only available for commercial use to paying members of the ZigBee Alliance. Ember and Squidbee make “ZigBee” sensors, not WiFi sensors. “ZigBee” is based on IEEE802.15.4, “WiFi” is based on IEEE802.11.

A “Wi-Fi” sensor is compatible with products certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance, a trade-group that publishes interoperability standards and performs compatibility testing for IEEE802.11 devices.
This is very similar to the relationship between the ZigBee Alliance and IEEE802.15.4. The ZigBee Alliance published the ZigBee standard, based on IEEE082.15.4, and completely incompatible with IEEE802.11. It is also not an “open-source” standard, since it is only available for commercial use to paying members of the ZigBee Alliance.

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