Resideo Introduction to Z-Wave - Updated 12/5/19

Introduction to Z
-
Wave

An Introductory Guide to Z
-
Wave Technology







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Table of Contents

Z
-
Wave Overview and Functionality
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3

Z
-
Wave Technology Quick Overview

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3

Radio Specifications

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3

Network and Topology

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3

Z
-
Wave Components and Terminology
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4

Controllers

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4

Slave Nodes

................................
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4

Home ID

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4

Node ID

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.

5

Routing

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................................
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................................
..

5

Beaming

................................
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.

6

Hopping

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.

7

Inclus
ion

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7

Exclusion

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7

Network Wide Inclusion (NWI)

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8

General Installation Guidelines

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9

General Information

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9

Environmental Co
nsiderations

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9

Construction

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9

Calculating Loss

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10

Designing De
vice Routing

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...

12


What is Z
-
Wave Plus?...................................................................................................................
....
....................13










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Z
-
Wave Overview and Functionality

Z
-
Wave communicates using wireless technology designed specifically for remote control applications. Z
-
Wave
operates in the sub
-
gigahertz frequency range, around
900
MHz
.

This band competes with some
cordless telephones

and other consumer electronics devic
es, but avoids interference with
Wi
-
Fi

and other systems.

Z
-
Wave

Technology Quick Overview

•

Uses a
“
Network ID
”

and a “
Node
”

ID (Similar to an IP Address)

•

Uses RF technology to transmit between Nodes (Phases do not matter)

•

Uses a Mesh Network configuration

•

Each
A/C Powered node

can act as repeaters, for extending the distance

(Battery operated nodes
do not repeat)

•

Must have a
“Primary Controller”

to learn in the modules

•

Can have a maximum of 232 devices

Radio Specifications

•

Bandwidth: 9,600 bit/s or 40 kbit/
s, fully interoperable

•

Modulation: GFSK

•

Range:
75

feet assuming a non
-
intrusive environment (non interference)
, with an
optimum range

of 30
feet.

•

Frequency band: uses the 900 MHz ISM band: 908.42MHz (U.S.)

•

Power limit:
1mW transmission

Network and
Topology

Z
-
Wave is a
low powered
mesh networking

technology where each node or device on the network is capable of
sending and receiving control commands through walls or floors and use intermediate nodes to route around
household obstacles or radio dead spots that might occur.

Z
-
Wave uses a
source
-
rout
ed

mesh network topology and has one master (primary) controllers that control routing
and security. Devices can communicate to another by using intermediate nodes to actively route around and
circumvent household obstacles or radio dead spots that might o
ccu
r. The following example assumes that other
devices exist on the network to create the mesh.

Example:
A message from node A to node C can be successfully delivered even if the two nodes are not
within range, providing that a third node B can communicat
e with nodes A and C.


If the preferred route is unavailable, the message originator will attempt other routes until a path is found to
the "C" node.

This allows a Z
-
Wave network to span much farther than the radio range of a single unit; however, with th
e use of
several hops a delay could occur between the control command and the desired result.

(Z
-
Wave, 2011)

For more information on the Z
-
Wave:

•

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z
-
Wave

•

www.z
-
wave.com

Z
-
Wave
. (2011, October 11). Retrieved October 31, 2011, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z
-
Wave




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Z
-
Wave
Components

and Terminology

Controllers

A controller is defined as a unit that has the ability to
compile

a routing table of the network and can calculate routes
to the different nodes.

There are

different roles for each controller. Some of the most common are
Primary and
Secondary
roles
, also

known as static controllers
.

•

Primary Controller

is the device that contains a description of the Z
-
Wave network and controls the
outputs
.
It assigns the “Network

or Home

ID” and “Node ID” to the Z
-
Wave node during the enrollment
process.

•

Secondary Control
ler

contains the same “Network ID” as the primary and
is required to remain stationary
to maintain the routing table
.

Notes:

•

Any controller can be primary
, but only
one

primary controller can exist on a network at a time.

•

The primary controller manages the

allotment

of node IDs and gathers information about wh
ich nodes can
reach each other. For Example:

1.

Honeywell’s L5100 will support up to 40 lights, 3 thermostats and 4 Locks

2.

Honeywell’s Tuxedo Touch™ Controller will support 232 devices

•

The
secondary controllers can obtain the
network
routing
information gathered by the primary
c
ontroller.

Slave Nodes

Slave nodes are nodes that do not contain routing tables, but may contain

a network map. This map contains

information about routes to differe
nt nodes if assigned to it by the controller.

•

Slave

Nodes

has the ability to receive frames and respond to them if necessary

•

Routing Slave
have the ability to host a number of routes for talking to other slaves and controllers

•

Frequently Listening
Routing Slave (FLiRS)

is configured to listen to a wake up
beam

during every
wake up interval.
→

See
“Beaming”

for more information.

Notes:

•

Any slave node can act as a repeater if the nodes state is set to “listen” mode.

However, it is important to
note t
hat some Z
-
Wave manufacturers require software to enable the repeating option in the node

•

If the Routing Slave is A/C powered they can be used as repeaters, battery powered devices do not repeat

in
an effort to control the battery life

Home ID

To separate
networks from one another the Z
-
Wave network uses a unique identifier called the
Home ID
. It r
efers
to the ID that the Primary Controller assigns the node
during the inclusion process
.


•

This is a 32
-
bit code establ
ished by the primary controller

•

Addition
al controllers will be assigned the same
Home
ID during the inclusion
process

•

All slave no
d
es in the network will initially have a Home ID that is set to
zero (0)

•

Once the slave node contains a Home ID it must be
excluded

before you can assign it to a different

network



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Node ID

A node is the Z
-
Wave module itself. A
Node ID

is the identification number or address that each device
is
assigned

during the inclusion proc
ess
. The logic works very similar to that of an IP Address.

•

The primary control
ler assigns the ID to each node

•

There are a total of 232
nodes available on each network

•

Important Note: the Primary Controller is considered part of the network and must be
subtracted from the
overall node count
.
Therefore,

the total
numbers of slave nodes available are

231.


In the example below, you can see where the primary controller has a home ID of

16

(
0x00001111
)

and each node
has
an id of 02 and 03. Note the primary controller will always contain the Node ID of 01.



Routing

All controllers have a routing table that enabl
e
s the controller to calculate the routes in the Z
-
Wave network. It

keeps track of these routes

and knows which ‘path’ to take to commun
icate with the destination node.

In the following example, the controller knows
to

reach the
second

slave node it must pass through the
first

node so
the path would be as follows:







When slave 1 receives the message it will look at the destination node ID then cross
-
reference that with its own ID.
If it does not match it will forward (
repeat
) the signal along.

See “
Hopping
” and “
Beaming
” for more information
.

Note:
Battery powered devices, such as door locks and battery
-
powered thermostats, will not repeat.




Primary
Controller

Home ID: 0x00001111

Node ID:
0x01

Slave
1

Home ID: 0x00001111

Node ID:

0x02

Slave
2

Home ID: 0x00001111

Node ID:
0x03

Primary
Controller

Home ID: 0x00001111

Node ID: 0x01

Slave
1

Home ID: 0x00001111

Node ID: 0x02

Slave
2

Home ID: 0x00001111

Node ID: 0x03



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Z
-
Wave also determines the most efficient path to take to get to the correct

node. The example below describes how
the Z
-
Wave mesh rout
ing n
etwork decided to get to node 6.

In this example we can see how the primary controller
decides to use the path of “Slave 1
→

Slave
4
→

Slave 6” (highlighted in
green
) versus the path “Slav
e 2
→

Slave 3
→

Slave 5
→

Slave 6” (highlighted in
red
). It knows that it has
fewer

nodes to go through so the message will be
delivered more efficiently.



Z
-
Wave also has an intuitive intelligence where it uses its two
-
way communication to determine the position of each
node, hence may determine the most efficient path is direct communication ve
rsus hopping through other nodes.

Beaming

Battery powered nodes (FLiRS) have a battery saver feature
in which

the
node

will be awake for
1.5

second
s then
sleep for 1.5

second
s
.
The
Beam

is a carrier that is transmitted for a pre
set

period
. The 2
-
way batte
ry devices
operate as follows: the radio turns off

(to conserve battery)

for 1.5 seconds
and
then

wakes

up
for 1.5 seconds.
If a
carrier 'Beam' is detected the battery device will fully wake up, checks into the network
with a broadcast to all the
surrounding nodes.
When the FLiRS devic
e receives this broad
cast
,

it responds with an “I do” and
beams

the

command

to that particular slave node
. If it does not hear the beam

command,

it falls back to sleep and 1.5 seconds
lat
er starts the cycle over.


The key is that the Beam Command is issued from devices that use a permanent power source (like AC). In addition
,

the repeating device must have recent firmware that have the ability to transmit the Beam Command.

How Does The Bea
m Command Effect My Installation?

•

If there are no battery powered 2
-
way Z
-
wave devices in your network then the
Beaming

Command is not
needed.

•

If your Z
-
Wave installation includes a lock, battery po
wered thermostat, or any other Z
-
W
ave battery
powered dev
ice, read on.

•

Not all repeating devices can issue a beam command. If

a controller
tries to send a signal to a 2
-
way battery
powered
device
it will

depend on another Z
-
wave module to repeat the command, that repeating module
must support the Beam Command.

•

Z
-
Wave nodes not capable of receiving or sending beams will disregard the data and drop the
packet
.

•

Without a
Z
-
Wave

device that supports
Beaming
,
the destination node may not receive the message
because it was “Sleeping”

How Does Beaming Differ From Repe
ating?

A slave node that simply repeats the signal grabs the message, understands that it is not intended for itself and sends
the packet a long. A module that support beaming will recognizes that
there is a battery powered device nearby and
will hold the

message in a buffer until the node wakes up with the broadcast request mentioned above.

Note: In a multi
-
hop
situation,

only the last node before the destination node needs to be a module that supports
beaming.

Primary
Controller

Slave
1

Slave
2

Slave
4

Slave
3

Slave
5

Slave
6



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Hopping

Hopping is the number of times a message can be repeated before the message is dropped. The maximum number
of hops a Z
-
Wave device can perform is five, how
ever the optimum number of hops is two.
While designing a
system the installer or applications engineer must realize that the more hops a message takes the more susceptible it
is to incorrect translations of the message. The image below represents hoppin
g:






Hop 1





Hop 2


Inclusion

Including a node into a network is the process of
assigning the Home ID and Node ID to the slave unit. The
inclusion process is initiated on the Primary Controller first then activating the function button or
command on the
node itself. When an un
-
initialized node is
activated,

the Primary Controller will assign it the Home ID and Node
ID.

Notes:

•

If the node will not include it may have been assigned to a different Home ID.

•

A possible solution to this issue is

to
send it an
Exclusion

command

or perhaps factory default the unit
.

Exclusion

Excluding a node from the network is the process of removing the assigned Home ID and Node ID. The exclusion
process resets the Home ID and Node ID to zero. The only exception is a controller, if you exclude a controller the
Home ID reverts to the ID pro
grammed during manufacturing.

Notes:

•

Any Primary Controller can exclude a node.

•

The node does
not

have to exist on the
controller’s

network to send it an exclusion command.



Primary
Controller

Home ID: 0x00001111

Node ID: 0x01

Slave
1

Home ID: 0x00001111

Node ID: 0x02

Slave
2

Home ID: 0x00001111

Node ID: 0x03



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Network Wide Inclusion (NWI)

NWI is the process in which you can include devices
into the primary controller

that are outside the controllers
range
.
Before
NWI,

all devices had to be included within close proximity to the primary controller and then the
routing table reconfigured after installing.

NWI allows the installer t
o start at the controller and include the devices
that are
within its range
. Once those have

been included in the network
, then
the installer can

include the next level
of devices

that are not within direct range of the primary controller
.
The image belo
w represents an ideal
installation using NWI. The

key is nodes 1
-
4
must

support NWI in order to pass the inclusion message on to the
primary controller during the inclusion process.


As depicted by the following figure, using NWI the
installer will include in Slave Nodes 1
-
4

(
red

circle)

first, then
proceed to include
nodes 5
-
12

(
green

circle)
.

The nodes within range of the primary controller marked with a
red

circle and those that not within range are marked with the
green

circle.

T
he red circle has a diameter of 30’ from the
primary controller and the green circle has a diameter of > 75’ from the primary controller.

Example

would be Node 7 is out of the range of the primary controller, so using the NWI feature of node two we
will
“b
ounce” the enrollment process
off

Node 2 to get a successful

inclusion into the network.






Primary
Controller

Slave
9

Slave
7

Slave
5

Slave
11

Slave
8

Slave
12

Slave
10

Slave
6

Slave
2

Slave
3

Slave
4

Slave
1



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General Installation Guidelines

The following section contains important information essentia
l to all applications concerning a Z
-
Wave installation.
Honeywell recommends these guidelines are followed and understood before installing
or servicing a Z
-
Wave
installation.

General Information

•

Range
: 75 feet in a perfect non
-
intrusive environment, with

an optimum range of 30 feet.

•

Maximum house size
:

7500 feet
2

using one controller

Environmental Considerations

RF interference on a Z
-
Wave network can severely impact the functionality of the devices. The following items
must be taken into consideration wh
en designing or troubleshooting a network.

•

900 MHz Cordless
Telephones

•

Wireless Speaker Expanders or Extenders

•

IR to RF Remote Control Extenders

•

Older Baby Monitors

Different building materials:

•

Metal foil backed insulation

•

Metal foil backed wall
paper

•

Concrete with rebar

•

Plaster wall construction

Construction

Z
-
Wave is intended for residential and light commercial applications. Most residential construction has three basic
shapes

the standard Box shape, U shape, and L Shape.

The ideal installation is a box or
rectangular

shaped house
with the primary controller centrally located.


However,
because Z
-
W
ave devices are low powered there are certain construction elements that need to be taken
into consideration when designing the mesh network.



Primary
Controller

Node
1

Node
2

Node
4

Node
3



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Calculating Loss

Construction Materials:

As with any installation with rf
devices,

the installer or system designer must consider a wide variety of installation
material that can interrupt the flow of data from one node to the next. Recall that the
optimum rang is 30’

for
node
-
to
-
node transmission. The

maximum is 75’

in a perfect open

environment as shown in the image above.

Finally, keep in mind that node transmission is
Omni
-
directional
.
See the following Chart:

Material

Thickness (Inches)

Signal Loss

Glass

.25

10%

Drywall

< 4

30%

Wood

3

30%

Stone

10.5

70%

Concrete

4

70%

Concrete

8

90%

Reinforced Concrete

4.5

95%

Concrete

12

98%

Example 1:


In this
example,

we have a simple system with one Primary Controller and one Node. For a drywall
installation,

we
calculate the loss as follows:

Dry Wall Installation
:

30ft. x 25% loss = 7.5ft (There will be a
loss of 7.5ft from the primary controller to
the node.)

Concr
ete, Plaster, Stone, Cinder Block:

30 ft. x 50%

loss

= 15ft

(There will be a
loss of 15ft from the primary controller to
the node.)

What we determine from these calculations is the maximum optimal distance the message will travel is 22.
5
ft

if
using drywall

(30
ft

–

7.5
ft

= 22.5

ft
)

and 15’ if using concrete, plaster, stone, or cinder block

(30

ft
–

15

ft = 15

ft)
.
If the distance to Node 1 exceeds
these limitations,

you will need to add another node on the interior wall to repeat
the
message
.

Primary
Controller

Node
1



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Example 2:


In this example, the message has to pass through two exterior walls
in order to reach node 1. There for the
calculation
will be as follows:

Dry Wall Installation:

(30ft. x 25% =
7
.5ft) x 2

walls = 15
ft (There
will be a loss of 15ft from the primary
controller to the node.)

Concrete, Plaster, Stone, Cinder Block:

(
30
ft. x 50% = 15ft
) x 2 walls = 30ft (There
will be a
loss of 30ft from the primary
controller to the node.)



If this home has been constructed with brick,
or if there is foil insulation,
then the message will be trying to transmit
through two walls that are reducing the signal by 50% each time.
This installation w
ill
suggest another node to be
placed on an interior wall to repeat the sign
al to node 1.

Taking into
consideration the optimum range of 30ft. it
would NOT be recommended to communicate through a concrete wall.



Primary
Controller

Node
1

Node
2



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Designing Device Routing

All installations must be well designed to create variable routing paths for different nodes. A solid design element is
to avoid any one node being a key point of transmission to other nodes. This can create bottlenecks and latency
issues. Use the following floor plans as considerations for any installation:

Good
System Design

Plan:

A good floor plan has a
well
-
distribut
ed

mesh network, has high node density to compensate for failed devices and
creates multiple routing options.


Poor System Design Plan:

A poor system design contains holes in the routing options, sparse node density, routing dependency through a
central device, and large distances between devices.


Why is this important to recognize?

This is important to recognize because the nodes to the left of the node surrounded by the red circle are dependent
on that node. In large applications, this can cause latency issues
and bottlenecks in data transfer that could result in
loss of information.

In addition
, it contains the routing path to the nodes on the right and because this is a key
element to the design if the product were to fail, it would require a complete system
rebuild. All devices

on the right

would have to be excluded then re
-
included.






P
rimary
Controller

Node

Node

Node

Node

Node

Node

Node

Node

Node

Primary
Controller

Node

Node

Node

Node

Node

Node

Node

Node

Node

Node

Node

Node



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What is Z
-
Wave Plus

Z
-
Wave Plus is essentially just an extension of Z
-
Wave. Z
-
Wave Plus

is a new certification, also known as 500
Series, 5
th

Generation, Z
-
Wave for Gen5 or just plain Gen5.

Z
-
Wave Plus extended features include:






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Z
-
Wave Plus in Practice

If you have a complete Z
-
Wave Plus system, where every device is of the new Gen5 vari
ety, you will get all the
benefits that the new features offer such as extended battery life, much longer range and increased bandwidth.

Below are some of the effects when using Z
-
Wave and Z
-
Wave Plus devices, sensors and controllers based on 300
-
series a
nd 400 series Z
-
Wave chips.

Battery Life

The battery life for Z
-
Wave Plus devices is significantly improved over previous generations. It doesn’t rely on any
other devices in the system, therefore, you will see the extended battery life offered by Z
-
Wave Plus devices
-

up to
50% longer than existi
ng devices.

Range

The range of the devices relies heavily on other devices in the network. If you are using a mix of Z
-
Wave Plus and
existing devices you will not see the increase in range offered by Z
-
Wave Plus.

Controller


The main consideration is the Z
-
Wave controller
-

if the controller is not Z
-
Wave Plus enabled then all devices added
to the that controller’s network will default to acting as Z
-
Wave. This is because Z
-
Wave Plus is back
-
wards
compatible with Z
-
Wave devices, when it is installed with Z
-
Wave devices it be
haves just like a Z
-
Wave device as
those existing devices have no way to communicate with it using Z
-
Wave Plus commands.

If you do have a Z
-
Wave Plus controller, then you will start to see the benefits of Z
-
Wave Plus, but make sure that
the other devices i
n the ‘route’ to the Z
-
Wave plus device are also compatible. Otherwise, it will again default to
operating as a plain Z
-
Wave device.


Second Generation of
Z
-
Wave Plus

Second generation of S2 will include Z
-
Wave
DSK and
SmartStart
.

S2 security allows an in
cluding controller to
verify that a joining node(device) is indeed the physical device that it claims to be. Depending on the user interface,
an including controller may allow the installer to enter a Device
-
Specific Key (DSK) string of digits or scanned a
s a
QR code.


The DSK of the device is used only during inclusion, where the device is granted one or more of the network keys
by the gateway(controller). These keys are used to encrypt the communication, and only shared with authenticated
devices.











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Below is an example of a controller prompting for the DSK of a Z
-
Wave Plug in module. The DSK can be found on
the QR code of the product.






A QR code reader may also be used to determine the DSK of the Z
-
Wave device. The QR code reader
will display
the following string of digits, the 5 Digit DSK will be Digits 13
-
17 as seen below.
















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Z
-
Wave SmartStart removes the need for initiating the end device to start inclusion. Inclusion is initiated
automatically on power
-
ON, and rep
eated at dynamic intervals for as long as the device is not included into a Z
-
Wave network. As the new device announces itself on power
-
ON, the protocol will provide notifications, and the
gateway can initiate the inclusion process in the background, witho
ut the need for user interaction or any
interruption of normal operation. This improvement also removes the possibility of other devices being included, as
the SmartStart inclusion process only includes authenticated devices.

Provisioning List

Z
-
Wave Smart
Start is designed to facilitate the inclusion of multiple devices simultaneously, enabled by the
Provisioning List, and by storing unique end device DSKs in the gateway. By simply scanning the end device QR
code before shipment to the end user, the Provisi
oning List is created in the gateway. This ensures that the gateway
is ready to include the end device out of the box as soon as it is powered on, eliminating the need for any further
user interaction on the end device. The order in which the devices are p
owered is irrelevant; the gateway will
include them as long as they are on the Provisioning List.

Removing SmartStart devices from a Z
-
Wave network

Because SmartStart always includes end devices securely, it is possible to do remote reset of an end device
when it
is removed from the provisioning list. The gateway can automatically perform these steps. If a device is reset
without being removed from the gateway’s provisioning list, it will automatically be included again the next time it
is powered on.