BLE and ZigBee in IoT climate control systems: a comparative overview and application prospects

DOI: 10.31673/2412-9070.2025.024081

Abstract

The choice of network technology is key in the development of IoT systems. As the use of smart devices in IoT and IIoT continues to scale, it is clear that this is making wired device connections a thing of the past, enabling wireless networking technologies to cover more and more areas of application.
The latter is achieved by wireless technology developers who, based on global needs, adapt wireless technologies and optimise them specifically for low-power devices. It is also worth noting the environmental component, as the installation of hundreds or thousands of cables for IoT devices would be more expensive and would cause more environmental damage from larger cable production facilities.
The article discusses the main trends of two currently developed devices that are economical in terms of power consumption - Bluetooth LE and ZigBee wireless network technologies. When choosing these two wireless technologies, the main focus was on their popularity, similarity to each other in terms of the principle of operation, excellent encryption of transmitted data in the network, the same frequency range, efficiency in terms of discharging devices, and a relatively short range of operation (less than 200 metres).
A comparison of the protocol stacks of both networks was considered, the network operation process and other various features of the technologies were outlined. The latter, the consideration of the main characteristics, provided a clear view of both network technologies, which distinguished Bluetooth Low Energy as a better network in all respects compared to ZigBee. That's why it became clear that in photo transmission and larger projects, Bluetooth LE can provide greater functional needs of the system. That's why it became clear that in photo transmission and larger projects, Bluetooth LE can provide more functional needs of the system. However, this does not preclude the use of ZigBee in small and medium-sized scalable systems, since for devices that transmit low-bit information or not very important information in real time, ZigBee can perfectly provide their functionality and have no significant difference from Bluetooth LE.

Keywords: Bluetooth LE, ZigBee, IoT, power consumption, protocol stack, data rate, range, wireless network, device connection scheme, Mesh.