ESP32 Forum

The ESP32-H2 looks to be an exciting new product. But one thing that does not seem to be clear, will a Zigbee 3.0 stack be supplies by espressif? If so will it be at release (and when is release?)? And what licensing will it be under?

We currently have an OpenThread derived stack in ESP-IDF. I don't know enough about Zigbee to know if that is what you need, sorry. Licensing will likely be BSD or Apache2, although at this point I'm not sure if/when we'll release the sources as well.

ESP_Sprite wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 08, 2021 1:59 am

We currently have an OpenThread derived stack in ESP-IDF. I don't know enough about Zigbee to know if that is what you need, sorry. Licensing will likely be BSD or Apache2, although at this point I'm not sure if/when we'll release the sources as well.

Thread (or OpenThread) and Zigbee are two very different things and are not compatible with each other...

Whoops, that indicates what I know about Zigbee Sorry, in that case I am not aware about any information that can be publicly released about this.

ESP_Sprite wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 08, 2021 1:59 am

We currently have an OpenThread derived stack in ESP-IDF. I don't know enough about Zigbee to know if that is what you need, sorry. Licensing will likely be BSD or Apache2, although at this point I'm not sure if/when we'll release the sources as well.

As mentioned above, Thread and Zigbee are very different. The only thing they share in common is that they both use the same hardware layer, 802.15.4

What I am asking is will there be a Zigbee stack? I would find it very weird if not, as your press release does say:

ESP32-H2 will support Thread version 1.x and Zigbee 3.x.

Saying "it supports Zigbee, but you have to implement the entire Zigbee protocol yourself" seems a bit crazy, and doesn't really seem like Zigbee support to me? Especially as you have specifically mentioned Zigbee 3, as Zigbee 3 essentially unifies all previous Zigbee profiles into one common standard, so saying it supports Zigbee 3 without actually having an implementation doesn't make much sense?

E.g. if we look at the TI devices, they have Z-Stack https://www.ti.com/tool/Z-STACK. Which is a Zigbee 3 stack, and allows users to easily implement standard Zigbee 3 devices, allows the device to act as an end device, or a router which repeats other devices properly, or a coordinator.

I got some answers. We'll be using the OpenThread stack for Thread support, as stated before, and we will have a Zigbee 3 stack as well. Not sure if I can name which one, but it will be similar to Zigbee stacks you see on competing chips.

At one time, the biggest drawback was that Zigbee radios weren’t included in the phones (Android or iOS).
Unlike BLE or WiFi.
Has this changed?

ESP_Sprite wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 21, 2021 4:18 am

I got some answers. We'll be using the OpenThread stack for Thread support, as stated before, and we will have a Zigbee 3 stack as well. Not sure if I can name which one, but it will be similar to Zigbee stacks you see on competing chips.

Excellent! That's great to hear. Would love to hear which one, when you can release that.

Also is there a timeframe on the release date of the ESP32-H2? And I presume the Zigbee stack will be available at release?

bobolink wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 21, 2021 10:58 am

At one time, the biggest drawback was that Zigbee radios weren’t included in the phones (Android or iOS).
Unlike BLE or WiFi.
Has this changed?

They are not as far as I know? But why would you want Zigbee in a phone? Seems kind of pointless?

levihb wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 25, 2021 2:31 pm

Excellent! That's great to hear. Would love to hear which one, when you can release that.

Also is there a timeframe on the release date of the ESP32-H2? And I presume the Zigbee stack will be available at release?

Sorry, again, nothing I can publicly release on that yet.