Z-Wave is the second of two major wireless standards for internet of things (IoT) / home automation technologies.
Like Zigbee, Z-Wave is a low power, low bandwidth protocol. However, whereas Zigbee is an open standard, Z-Wave is proprietary. Z-Wave is commonly used to control lights, locks, garage doors, etc. The advantage of Z-Wave over Zigbee is that Z-Wave has a stricter certification program which ensures that each Z Wave certified device will communicate with each other.
Z wave is secured with AES 128.
Like Zigbee, the other major wireless standard for IoT, Z-Wave is also a wireless mesh network. This means that Z-Wave devices can connect to other Z-wave devices to expand the network. Nodes can hop through other Z-wave nodes to get to their destination.
Z-Wave also uses the ISM (Industrical, Scientific, Medical) band on the 900 MHz frequencies in the United States. Z-Wave does not come into conflict with 802.11.
Z-wave doesn’t connect directly to the Internet. You need a smart home hub that is plugged in and connected to the Internet. Example of smart home hubs include Wink and Samsung SmartThings. When planning out your home automation, try to stick with either Zigbee or Z-wave for easier management. However, some smart home hubs, like the Wink, can integrate both Zigbee and Z-wave to have a single point of control. Some devices may have their own proprietary hubs.
