From the Editor
Updated January 7, 2008 11:00 PST
Z-Wave Unplug Fest Reveals Promise for 2008
By David Powell
Several times each year the Z-Wave Alliance holds an event
called the "Developer's Forum." This informal
two-day event invites technology savvy alliance members,
such as software and hardware engineers to gather exchange
knowledge and interact with their fellow Z-Wave developers.
Day one provides a forum for alliance members to discuss
the latest advances in Z-Wave technology. Day two - also
known as "Unplug Fest" - is a full day of well-organized
interoperability testing that helps to ensure that all Z-Wave
products properly implement the Z-Wave technology standard
and interoperate with each other as intended. Both released
and future products are tested.
When I was invited to Denver to participate, I realized
it was the opportunity of a lifetime. Unplug Fest Winter
2007 started with a short introduction from each of the
Alliance members followed by several presentations including
topics on the upcoming 400 series Z-Wave chip, Z/IP (Z-Wave
and TCP/IP Convergence), Z-Wave Security, and more.
Day two started off with each manufacturer performing a
reference test. This test simply ensures that the devices
that they brought to the event are in working condition
and conform to the Z-Wave protocol. After completing the
reference tests the manufacturers broke out into pairs for
a bilateral testing session. Bilateral testing is where
two manufacturers bring their products together in a Z-Wave
network and test all possible device interactions to ensure
interoperability.
Using special Zinffer software, provided with the Zensys
Developer's Kit, Alliance members monitor the communication
taking place between the devices in the network. This allows
the members to track down problems such as a misinterpretation
of the protocol by the engineers or the use of a deprecated
command class.
Finally, the manufacturers combined all the available devices
into one massive network in an attempt to create some of
the less likely failures such as an overload of network
traffic and to thoroughly investigate unlikely yet possible
product pairings.
The Developer's Forum and Unplug Fest Winter 2007 was successful
in demonstrating the robustness and interoperability that
are leading features of Z-Wave technology. Interoperability
was proven between both new and old devices and between
devices from different manufacturers.
As in any such event, some minor bugs were uncovered in
some of the newer, yet to be released products. Finding
these bugs at this event allows the manufacturers to correct
these problems before the products prior to their release
to the market. Equally notable was the vast majority of
device-to-device operations performed as intended even though
in many cases this was the first time the devices were paired
in real life.
Unfortunately, I cannot discuss the results in detail for
the simple reason that most of the devices shown at the
event are still in their infancy and not ready for public
notice. However, you can rest assured that the pace of new
Z-Wave products coming to market is accelerating and you
will be seeing many exciting new products in the coming
year.
David Powell is the technology editor for ZWaveWorld.com.
You can reach him at david@zwaveworld.com.
