Smart Smoke Detectors - Part 2: How not to create a standard

When a company makes a device, they usually want people to buy a device.  When making a protocol that allows devices to communicate with each other, you would think companies would want to allow manufacturers to make devices as easily as possible.  Unfortunately the answer is no.  Protocol companies often try to prevent manufacturers from making devices.  They do this by forcing manufacturers to pay a fee.  This is the only way the company making the protocol makes any money.  This idea actively prevents people from buying these devices, however.

The Zigbee protocol is not compatible with open source software.  That sentence really doesn't make sense.  How is a protocol not open source compatible?  The Zigbee Alliance actively prevents open source implementations by requiring the developers to pay a fee.  This requirement makes it not compatible with open source licenses, like the GPL.  This is why there is no way for a Linux computer to participate in a Zigbee mesh network.

I even searched for commercial software to allow me to automate the Zigbee-compatible "home automation" sensors.  I could not find any Zigbee home automation software.  All the commercial software was designed to assist in manufacturing of Zigbee devices.  This means Zigbee fails spectacularly at its intended goal.  Zigbee is a home automation protocol that does not allow computers to participate in home automation.  This begs the question: what is the point?

On top of that, Zigbee refers to multiple layers of the networking stack.  I have read (incorrectly) that the physical networking layer named IEEE 802.15.4 as Zigbee.  The software networking layer is correctly called Zigbee.  The application layer that (sometimes) sits on top of the software networking layer is also called Zigbee.  Here is the problem.  Some devices make use of the software networking layer, but not the application layer.  Any devices they use the entire Zigbee stack can communicate with each other.  Two devices that share the software networking layer but NOT the application layer will not work with each other.  Both devices can still be called "Zigbee compatible", however.

The failure of the Zigbee Alliance is probably why I never heard of the Zigbee protocol before.  The Zigbee Alliance, who's primary purpose for existing is to promote the purchasing of Zigbee devices that are compatible with each other, made a technology landscape that is so broken that its almost pointless to buy a Zigbee device.  Now that is an epic fail!