In a pioneering move that could broaden the acceptance of the low-powered mesh networking open standard created by the ZigBee Alliance, Tendril Networks Inc. is bringing to market operations and management software for wireless mesh networks.
Tendril on Tuesday announced its second-generation Network Operating Platform for building ZigBee-based applications. In addition, the wireless mesh software company unveiled new diagnostics and monitoring applications that include hooks into the ZigBee standard. With these announcements, Tendril adds a critical element to the toolkit for manufacturers looking to deploy a ZigBee-based wireless mesh network. To date, the ecosystem of ZigBee-compliant products has been limited to hardware and protocol stacks, Tendril officials said.
"ZigBee is moving out of the lab and into operational settings," said Tim Enwall, Tendril's COO, in an interview with Managing Automation.
At the plant level, where operational folks are control experts, not wireless networking experts, Tendril is offering pre-packaged building blocks as part of the new Network Operating Platform. The Tendril technology works with the silicon and network stacks of partners such as Ember and Texas Instruments to provide a total solution that steps the user through the deployment and addresses the most common concerns, including: How does a mesh network install in a factory? How do you perform diagnostics in the field? How do you upgrade devices in the field to work with the wireless mesh? How do you integrate that information with the enterprise network? How do you manage security? And how can the wireless network be optimized?
The ZigBee Alliance is a group of wireless technology OEMs that have been collaborating since 2004 to create an open-standard communication protocol based on IEEE 802.15.4, which defines the physical layer of a low-powered wireless network. There are already wireless mesh networking solutions that work on 802.15.4, but the protocol and technology stacks involved are part of proprietary packages from individual suppliers. ZigBee, which positions itself as a way to add wireless into home, building, and industrial automation environments, is trying to create a partner-based wireless ecosystem composed of chips, protocol stacks, a network operation platform, and applications.
To date, most of the ZigBee-compliant products have been silicon chips and device-based firmware development tools, Enwall said. But for ZigBee to go mainstream, there must be a way to develop and manage applications, he said.
"ZigBee is the only open standard in the market, and Tendril's software is designed to fully support companies that want an open approach to their wireless network initiatives," said Tendril President and CEO Adrian Tuck in a statement.
Tendril is looking to take an open approach to wireless mesh networking in the hope that it will propel the technology forward. "We are not tied to the ZigBee architecture or technology, but commercially we've decided [that] open standards win," Enwall said. "It may take longer for Tendril to get rolling, but once [a standard gets] rolling, the historical analogy shows you it clobbers everything in its path."
Tendril's next-generation Network Operating Platform software simplifies and speeds the development and deployment process for ZigBee applications by addressing key operational challenges, Tendril officials said. It includes a small-footprint software agent that is event-driven (that is, it does not rely on polling the network), disruption-tolerant, and includes complex device identification. The new server includes support for open APIs, an event-driven architecture, authentication, authorization, and encryption for security. In addition, the new Tendril Monitor application is the first in a series of ZigBee-compliant applications that the company will develop in conjunction with third-party vendors. Tendril Monitor, designed to simplify the day-to-day management of a ZigBee network, gathers data from the network and can create alarms based on a rules-based engine.
Tendril, which is the first software company to be elected to the ZigBee board of directors, is partnering with chip companies such as Atmel, Ember, Engenuity, Texas Instruments, and Tridium. The company hopes to woo the big industrial device manufacturers to jump-start the market, Enwall said.
Tendril's new operating platform and software will be available this spring.