Exegin Technologies has become one of the first two stack vendors worldwide certified for Suzi, a new sub-GHz feature set introduced by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) alongside Zigbee 4.0.
Suzi extends Zigbee connectivity into the 868MHz band in Europe and the 915MHz band in North America, allowing devices to communicate over longer distances and with greater resistance to obstacles than conventional 2.4GHz Zigbee deployments.
The addition gives Zigbee a potential role in applications where the shorter range and propagation characteristics of 2.4GHz connectivity can be a limitation, including utility networks, agriculture, smart cities and industrial sites.
Exegin, a Vancouver-based developer of mesh networking software, was involved in developing the standard. Its CEO, Leslie Mulder, serves as Vice Chair of the CSA’s Zigbee Sub GHz Task Group, which developed Suzi.
“Being one of the first two vendors certified for Suzi reflects work our team has been part of from the earliest stages of the standard,” said Mulder.
Exegin’s software is silicon independent, allowing manufacturers to implement Suzi across different combinations of sub-GHz radios and processors rather than tying deployments to a particular chip vendor.
The company also points to dual-band devices as a way of extending existing Zigbee networks. Products combining 2.4GHz and sub-GHz radios can continue to communicate with existing Zigbee infrastructure while using the lower-frequency band where greater range or improved penetration is required.
Potential applications include smart metering and advanced metering infrastructure, street lighting and parking systems, agricultural monitoring, and industrial and commercial deployments where distance, concrete and steel can restrict 2.4GHz mesh connectivity.
Exegin says its mesh networking software has been deployed in more than 300 million IoT devices, primarily in smart metering and smart city applications.
The certification gives the company an early position in the emerging Suzi ecosystem, although wider adoption will depend on the availability of compatible silicon, modules and end devices as manufacturers begin incorporating sub-GHz Zigbee into products.
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