Glossary
Zigbee and IEEE 802.15.4 terminology used throughout zigbee-rs.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| APS | Application Support Sub-layer. Provides addressing, binding, group management, and reliable delivery between application endpoints. Implemented in the zigbee-aps crate. |
| BDB | Base Device Behavior. Defines standard commissioning procedures (steering, formation, Finding & Binding, Touchlink) that all Zigbee 3.0 devices must support. Implemented in the zigbee-bdb crate. |
| Binding | A persistent link in the APS binding table that maps a local cluster to a remote device or group. Bindings enable indirect addressing so an application can send data without knowing the destination address at compile time. |
| Channel | One of the sixteen IEEE 802.15.4 radio channels (11–26) in the 2.4 GHz band. Zigbee PRO primarily uses channels 11, 15, 20, and 25 for network formation. |
| Cluster | A ZCL construct grouping related attributes and commands (e.g. On/Off, Temperature Measurement). Each cluster has a 16-bit ID and is hosted on an endpoint. Defined and parsed in the zigbee-zcl crate. |
| Commissioning | The process of getting a device onto a network and configured. BDB defines four methods: network steering, network formation, Finding & Binding, and Touchlink. |
| Coordinator | The device that forms the Zigbee network, assigns the PAN ID, and often acts as the Trust Center. It always has short address 0x0000. |
| ED (End Device) | A Zigbee device that does not route traffic. It communicates only through its parent (a router or the coordinator) and may sleep to save power. See also SED. |
| Endpoint | A numbered application-level port (1–240) on a Zigbee node. Each endpoint hosts a set of input and output clusters. Endpoint 0 is reserved for the ZDO. |
| Extended PAN ID | A 64-bit IEEE address used to uniquely identify a Zigbee network, distinguishing it from other PANs that may share the same 16-bit PAN ID. |
| FFD | Full-Function Device. An IEEE 802.15.4 device capable of acting as a PAN coordinator or router. Zigbee coordinators and routers are FFDs. |
| Formation | The BDB commissioning step where a coordinator creates a new Zigbee network by selecting a channel and PAN ID, then starting the network. |
| Green Power | A Zigbee feature allowing ultra-low-power devices (e.g. energy-harvesting switches) to transmit without joining the network. Green Power frames are proxied by nearby routers. |
| Group | A 16-bit multicast address. Devices that belong to the same group all receive frames sent to that group ID, enabling one-to-many communication within a cluster. |
| IEEE Address | The globally unique 64-bit hardware address of a Zigbee device (also called the EUI-64 or extended address). Used during joining and for link-key establishment. |
| Install Code | A per-device secret (typically printed on the device or packaging) used to derive a unique link key during commissioning. Provides out-of-band security for Trust Center joining. |
| Link Key | A 128-bit AES key shared between two specific devices for APS-level encryption. Can be derived from an install code or provisioned by the Trust Center. |
| MAC | Medium Access Control. The lowest layer in zigbee-rs, responsible for frame formatting, CSMA-CA channel access, acknowledgements, and scanning. Implemented in the zigbee-mac crate with per-platform radio backends. |
| Network Key | A 128-bit AES key shared by all devices in the Zigbee network. Provides NWK-layer encryption and is distributed (encrypted) by the Trust Center. |
| NIB | NWK Information Base. A set of attributes maintained by the NWK layer (e.g. short address, PAN ID, security material). Accessed via NwkGet / NwkSet primitives. |
| NWK | Network layer. Handles mesh routing, 16-bit address assignment, broadcast, and network-level security. Implemented in the zigbee-nwk crate. |
| OTA | Over-The-Air upgrade. A ZCL cluster (0x0019) that allows firmware images to be distributed wirelessly. Parsed by zigbee-zcl and applied via zigbee-runtime’s firmware writer. |
| PAN | Personal Area Network. The logical Zigbee network formed by a coordinator and all devices that have joined it. |
| PAN ID | A 16-bit identifier for a PAN, used in MAC frame headers to distinguish traffic from overlapping networks. |
| PIB | PAN Information Base. A set of MAC-layer attributes (e.g. current channel, short address, frame counter) defined by IEEE 802.15.4. |
| Poll Control | A ZCL cluster (0x0020) that lets a server manage when a sleepy end device polls its parent. Useful for battery-powered devices that need timely command delivery. |
| Profile | A Zigbee application profile defining which clusters a device type must support. Zigbee 3.0 uses a single unified profile (HA profile 0x0104). |
| RFD | Reduced-Function Device. An IEEE 802.15.4 device that cannot route or act as a coordinator — it can only be an end device. |
| Router | A Zigbee device that participates in mesh routing, relays frames for other devices, and can allow new devices to join through it. Routers are always powered on. |
| SED (Sleepy End Device) | An end device that spends most of its time asleep to conserve battery. It wakes periodically to poll its parent for pending messages. |
| Short Address | A 16-bit network address assigned to a device when it joins the network. Used in NWK and MAC frame headers for compact addressing. |
| Steering | The BDB commissioning step where a device scans for open networks, joins one, and authenticates with the Trust Center. |
| Touchlink | A proximity-based commissioning mechanism (BDB chapter 8). A device physically close to a Touchlink initiator can be commissioned without an existing network. |
| Trust Center | The device (usually the coordinator) responsible for network security policy: distributing the network key, authorising joins, and managing link keys. |
| ZCL | Zigbee Cluster Library. Defines the standard set of clusters, attributes, commands, and data types used by Zigbee applications. Implemented in the zigbee-zcl crate. |
| ZDO | Zigbee Device Object. The management entity on endpoint 0 that handles device and service discovery, binding, and network management. Implemented in the zigbee-zdo crate. |
| ZDP | Zigbee Device Profile. The protocol (request/response commands) used to communicate with the ZDO on a remote device. ZdpStatus codes are returned in every ZDP response. |
| Zigbee PRO | The Zigbee PRO feature set (also called Zigbee PRO 2023 in the latest revision). It includes mesh networking, frequency agility, and stochastic addressing. zigbee-rs implements the Zigbee PRO stack. |