20 Facts About Z-Wave

Z-Wave is a wireless communications protocol used primarily for residential and commercial building automation.

Z-Wave provides the application layer interoperability between home control systems of different manufacturers that are a part of its alliance.

Z-Wave protocol was developed by Zensys, a Danish company based in Copenhagen, in 1999.

In 2020, the Z-Wave Alliance ratified the Z-Wave specification, adding the application to open-source development.

Z-Wave Alliance is a consortium of over 300 companies in the residential and commercial connected technology market.

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In 2016, the Alliance launched a Z-Wave Certified Installer Training program to give installers, integrators and dealers the tools to deploy Z-Wave networks and devices in their residential and commercial jobs.

That year, the Alliance announced the Z-Wave Certified Installer Toolkit, a diagnostics and troubleshooting device that can be used during network and device setup and can function as a remote diagnostics tool.

In December 2019, the Z-Wave Alliance announced that the Z-Wave specification would become a ratified, multi-source wireless standard.

Z-Wave uses the Part 15 unlicensed industrial, scientific, and medical band, operating on varying frequencies globally.

Z-Wave has been released to be used frequencies with the following frequency bands in various parts of the world:.

Z-Wave devices create a mesh network, where devices can communicate with each other in addition to the central hub.

Each Z-Wave network is identified by a Network ID, and each device is further identified by a Node ID.

Z-Wave chip is optimized for battery-powered devices, and most of the time remains in a power saving mode to consume less energy, waking up only to perform its function.

Mobile devices, such as remote controls, are excluded since Z-Wave assumes that all repeater capable devices in the network remain in their original detected position.

Z-Wave is based on a proprietary design, supported by Sigma Designs as its primary chip vendor, but the Z-Wave business unit was acquired by Silicon Labs in 2018.

The vulnerability was not due to a flaw in the Z-Wave protocol specification but was an implementation error by the door-lock manufacturer.

In July 2019, the Z-Wave Alliance announced Z-Wave Plus v2 certification, designed for devices built on the 700 platform, for stronger interoperability and security, and an easier installation process.

Z-Wave LR operates on low power so that sensors can last for 10 years on a single coin cell.

Z-Wave has better interoperability than ZigBee, but ZigBee has a faster data transmission rate.

Z-Wave networks have IP at the gateway level, enabling cloud connectivity to Matter.