Everything You Need To Know About Z-Wave, Z-Wave Plus & More

Z-Wave is the leading wireless home automation technology offering significant benefits compared to older technologies.

• Two-way wireless communication - all messages acknowledged, if one gets lost it is automatically repeated
• Status updates - you know the status of every device on the system (lights, heating, appliances...)
• Mesh networking - automatically covers dead-spots, great for large installations
• Easy control - use a remote control, central controller, smartphone apps or via the Internet

There is one area to bear in mind with Z-Wave - the RF frequency ranges used are different in each territory due to regulatory requirements in the sub-1GHz band. In Europe Z-Wave devices all use the 868.42MHz frequency and this is the type of devices that Vesternet sells. These will not work with Z-Wave devices or Z-Wave Controllers that use different frequencies! For further information see the Silicon Labs reference.

Z-Wave Plus is a new certification program designed to help consumers identify products that take advantage of the recently introduced "Next Gen" Z-Wave hardware platform, also know as 500 Series, 5th Generation, Z-Wave for Gen5 or just plain Gen5. Z-Wave Plus certified solutions feature a selected set of extended features and capabilities that enhance the end user experience and make Z-Wave systems even faster and easier to install and set up.

Z-Wave Plus improves on the original specifications of Z-Wave by making use of the latest advancements in this exciting technology. With the introduction of the Next-Gen, Z-Wave has extended its capabilities, including increased range, extended battery life, Over The Air upgrading (OTA), additional RF channels and more - all of which are fully backwards compatible with existing Z-Wave products. These enhancements offer tremendous benefits in terms of shorter and easier installations, richer device profiles, improved self-healing and longer battery life.

Z-Wave Plus extended features include:

• Greater Range - significant increase in range, now up to 150m (clear air)
• Lower Power Requirements - 50% improvement in battery life
• More RF Bandwidth - 250% more
• Stability - three F channels for improved noise immunity and higher bandwidth
• Easier Inclusion & Exclusion of devices - new Plug-n-Play Network-wide Inclusion feature
• Reliability - improved self-healing and fault tolerance with Explorer Frame network discovery
• Firmware Updates - standardised method for Over the Air firmware updates (OTA)
• Device Data - improved product information capture for product certification database

The new features of the Z-Wave Plus devices are a great extension to Z-Wave and will help you make the most robust, solid wireless home automation system possible. But, you need to be a little careful of expectations - especially as the first devices are introduced using the new features and command classes available in the Z-Wave 500 series chips.

If you have a complete Z-Wave Plus system, where every device is of the new Gen5 variety, then you wouldn't have any issues. They would work together seamlessly (better than any Z-Wave system so far), and you would get all the benefits that the new features offer such as extended battery life, much longer range and increased bandwidth.

However, if you're mixing with existing Z-Wave devices, sensors and controllers based on the 300-series and 400-series Z-Wave chips then it does mean that you may miss out on some of the benefits of the Gen5 devices.

S2 is an extension to the security framework of Z-Wave Plus devices. It enables manufacturers to offer best-in-class security without any compromises in terms of power consumption or latency.

Sigma worked hand-in-hand with cybersecurity experts to develop the actual specification for the S2 extension that gives Z-Wave devices new levels of security. While Z-Wave already leads in security with AES 128-bit encryption level, which is available to all devices, S2 improves this by adding full diffe-hellman symmetric encryption to the key exchange as well as using a single command structure that replaces the previous three-step process, which reduces latency and improves battery life for devices using S2.

For further details on all that changes with S2 make sure to read this.

SmartStart aims to simplify the process of Including Z-Wave devices and builds upon the functionality that was introduced by S2.

By removing as much user interaction as possible, SmartStart now makes it a breeze to add new devices to your Smart Home system - simple scan the device QR code in the Z-Wave controller App and power on the device!

SmartStart also introduces further enhancements such as the "Provisioning List". This allows multiple devices to be Included simultaneously simply by powering them all on. For system builders and installers this will be a huge help, because now all device QR codes can simply be added to the Provisioning List in the Smart Home Controller prior to shipping to site. The installer or customer then powers on the Smart Home controller and all the devices and the system will set itself up automatically!

For further details on all that changes with SmartStart make sure to read this.

Z-Wave Plus V2, also known as 700 Series or Gen7, builds on the work that began with Z-Wave Plus and the incremental improvements of S2 and SmartStart. From the firmware to the chips themselves, Gen7 brings massive increases in wireless range, vastly superior security, faster operation and all while decreasing power consumption yet again.

The 700 series edition of Z-Wave Plus chips and modules offer major advantages over older versions of Z-Wave in a lot of different categories. End users will notice them the most in wireless speed and improved battery life. Developers will notice them the most in the improved wireless range and the improved memory.

Z-Wave Plus V2 extended features include:

• Greater Range - significant increase in range, now more than 200m (clear air)
• Lower Power Requirements - up to 10 years battery life
• More RF Output Power - up to +13 dBm
• Easier Inclusion & Exclusion of devices - Network-wide Inclusion and SmartStart features now mandatory
• Security - security first by design, encryption, ecdh and other improvements
• Firmware Updates - Over the Air firmware updates (OTA) now mandatory
• Frequency Flexible - Built in SAW Filter allows one device to support multiple Z-Wave frequencies
• Improved Performance - 700 series chips now ARM Cortex M4 based using faster CPU, more menory and greater storage

All in all Z-Wave Plus V2 offers even more features that will increase the reliability, stability and performance of your Smart Home, but as with the move from normal Z-Wave to Z-Wave Plus, expectations should be tempered somewhat if your existing Z-Wave controller only supports Z-Wave Plus and your existing devices are a mixture of Z-Wave and Z-Wave Plus.

Z-Wave LR, or Z-Wave "Long Range" to give it it's full title, was announced during 2020 and was quickly ratified into a formal specification ready for device manufacturers shortly afterwards.

Engineered to provide significantly extended wireless range and support robust networks, Z-Wave LR extends Z-Wave connectivity beyond the boundaries of the home and allows it to compete with other technologies in commercial, hospitality and multi-dwelling spaces. Z-Wave Long Range is an extra 100kbps DSSS OQPSK modulation addition to the Z-Wave protocol, essentially treated as a fourth channel that allows gateways to add LR nodes to the existing Z-Wave channel scanning.

Z-Wave LR features include:

• Increased Range And Coverage - range has been increased by several orders of magnitude. The specification supports a maximum output power of 30dBm which can be used to provide some truly stunning range enhancements - up to several miles in clear air!
• Increaed Scalability - historically all Z-Wave versions have been limited to a 232 maximum node limit, meaning for larger installations multiple independent Z-Wave networks have been required. Z-Wave LR increases the node limit to up to 4000 nodes, a 20-fold increase!
• Star Network - Z-Wave LR uses a new network topology, that of the "Star" configuration so it's a point-to-point network as opposed to a mesh network.

For further details on all that changes with Z-Wave LR make sure to read this.

Wait, 800 Series already? We've only just got up to speed with Gen7 700 Series?!?!?

Due unprecedented demand, chip manufacturing shortages and other issues during the past few years such as Covid, supply of the 700 series SoC's has dried up almost completely. This has resulted in a rapid escalation of development on a new 800 Series SoC!

Ultimately not much has changed at the protocol level itself, hence so far there's been no new branding (i.e. Z-Wave Plus V2 and Z-Wave Long Range) are still the current versions. The new SoC simply brings increased performance covering faster CPU, increased memory availability, slighter higer transmit power and lower power usage. There have also been some improvements in the security aspects.

For further details on all that changes with the Z-Wave 800 Series SoCs make sure to read this.