ZigBee Alliance and RF4CE Consortium agree to RF remote standard
The ZigBee RF4CE agreement supports a global open standard for RF remote controls as an alternative to IR-based remotes.
By Gail Flower, Contributing Editor -- EDN, March 10, 2009
The ZigBee Alliance plans to incorporate version 1.0 of the RF4CE specification into its suite of global sensor and control networks, the Alliance has announced. “There will be more products in the marketplace in 2Q of 2009 with RF remotes stemming from this agreement. The technology is real and market momentum is significant,” said Brett Black, senior manager of wireless connectivity operations at Freescale Semiconductor.
The RF4CE (radio frequency for consumer electronics) Consortium organized in June 2008 to create a protocol for the development of RF remote controls replacing IR remotes with a reliable, more flexible communication method. Now, with ZigBee’s support, more RF devices are designed to allow for bi-directional communications such as display feedback for enhanced entertainment and non line-of-sight operation, the organization said.
As demands for larger, connected consumer devices, such as large plasma and LCD screens continues to grow, IR technology can no longer handle the technologically challenging activities. Advanced control capabilities, such as two-way communication between devices or control of many devices with one remote will be the flexible solution, the alliance reports. Characteristics of ZigBee RF4CE include three-channel operation; power-saving mechanisms; pairing mechanisms; multiple star topology with inter-personal area network communication; and transmission options including broadcast, industry standard AES-128 security, a simple RC control profile, and an allowance for standard or vendor specific profile additions.
“We want the world to be RF and we want the world to use ZigBee,” said Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance in a statement. “The agreement welcomes the members of RF4CE and expects many great things to come from this powerful combination.”
The RF remote control standard on which ZigBee and RF4Ce are based is IEEE 802.15.4 MAC/PHY radio technology in the 2.4-GHz unlicensed frequency band, which enables low-power usage, worldwide operation, and is able to co-exist with other 2.4-GHz wireless technologies.
Panasonic Corp, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, and Sony Corp founded RF4CE on June 12, 2008, to add more functionality in remotes. Texas Instruments and Freescale Semiconductor joined later that month. TI provides a hardware platform with its CC2430 SoC (system-on-chip), which integrates a radio, MCU, and flash memory, the company said in a report. Freescale provides its SynkroRF entertainment control network technology, the basis of RF4CE protocol as an open specification to consumer electronics manufacturers.
ZigBee’s global alliance of more than 300 companies promotes the adoption of ZigBee as the wireless network for sensing and control standard of use in consumer electronics, energy, home, commercial and industrial areas.
“Sony has already commercialized RF remote control based on IEEE 802.15.4 standard for LCD TVs. Evolving this proven technology to an industry standard for remote control systems, we believe that RF4CE and ZigBee alliance will create brand new value for the electronics industry,” said Naoya Suzuki, vice-chair of the RF4CE consortium and GM at Sony Corp in a statement.
