Zigbee Trends for ECU/Industrial Engineers 2025–2026

1. Why Zigbee is being reevaluated now — Changing market trends

First of all, it's important to understand that the reasons for the reevaluation of Zigbee can be summed up in three points: battery operation, large-scale expansion, and interference environments. The background to this is the expansion of smart homes. Lighting, air conditioning, and security require battery life of several years and stable communication. Zigbee, a low-power mesh network that can distribute power loads through relays, meets these requirements.
Global market research predicts that the Zigbee-related market will expand to $5.16 billion in 2025 and $6.91 billion in 2030. As smart homes become more widespread, a wide range of implementation examples, certifications, and tools are available, and Zigbee is also highly rated for its ability to reduce implementation risks.
In recent years, the scope of applications has expanded beyond the home to include the following areas where large-scale, high-reliability systems are required:

• Smart building lighting and air conditioning control
• Factory Environmental Monitoring
• Energy Monitoring and Smart Meters
• Smart city sensor network

Zigbee can handle hundreds of nodes. Even if a node fails, it can maintain communication paths through self-healing, automatically bypassing other nodes, making it a powerful tool for large-scale networks.

2. The relationship between Zigbee and Matter — Coexistence, not replacement

Here we will clarify the relationship between Zigbee and Matter. In recent years, when selecting wireless standards, the key consideration is whether the two should be treated as competitors or as a prerequisite for coexistence.
Matter is an IP-based application layer standard formerly known as CHIP (Connected Home over IP). Its distinctive feature is its ability to unify the control of devices from different manufacturers using a common protocol, and its influence is spreading not only to home use but also to the integration of small industrial devices. Matter-compatible devices use Thread (IP mesh) or Wi-Fi for everyday communication, and connect to smartphones and other devices via Bluetooth LE during initial setup. Thread uses the same IEEE 802.15.4 wireless standard as Zigbee, but its IP-based architecture makes it easy to integrate with existing networks.
On the other hand, Zigbee is a non-IP mesh that uses the same IEEE 802.15.4 wireless standard but uses its own stack from the network layer to the application layer.
Although the two are often seen as competitors, they have different design philosophies and areas of expertise. Therefore, in reality, they mostly coexist. Especially in the industrial field, Zigbee is often used as the mesh infrastructure, while Matter is used for the integrated UI and cloud connectivity.

Zigbee and Matter to be jointly operated

In other words, a realistic division of roles would be Zigbee as a mesh platform in the industrial sector, and Matter as an integrated protocol in the consumer sector.

3. What has changed in Zigbee 4.0 (2025)?

Zigbee 4.0 is a major update scheduled for release in 2025, focusing on areas that are prone to bottlenecks in industrial applications, such as security, sub-GHz, dense network optimization, and compatibility.
We will explain the updated points for beginners.

1. Strengthened security (key management, encryption, device authentication)

In the world of IoT, mechanisms to prevent unauthorized connections and data tampering are essential. Zigbee 4.0 has strengthened encryption methods and revised key management and device authentication. This makes it easier to meet the security standards required for industrial IoT and ECUs.

	Cryptographic Agility This system allows for flexible switching of encryption algorithms in response to future threats and changes in standards. Its distinctive feature is that it allows security to be maintained and strengthened without replacing the entire system.
	ECDH-based authentication with Dynamic Link Key Devices generate a new link key each time using ECDH (Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman) to achieve secure key sharing and authentication, improving resistance to eavesdropping and MITM attacks.
	Device verification through Device Interview Before connecting, devices exchange information and capabilities with each other to verify whether they are genuine and authentic. This helps to eliminate unauthorized devices that behave abnormally.
	Enhanced Network-Wide Encryption and Added Secure Channel Uniform encryption is applied across the network to ensure consistent protection of communications between devices, while Secure Channel establishes a secure communication path to further protect sensitive data.

② Formulation of Suzi (Sub-GHz: 800/900MHz)

One feature of Zigbee 4.0 that is attracting particular attention is the official support for Sub-GHz (Suzi).
Previously, Zigbee mainly used the 2.4 GHz band. Zigbee 4.0 also officially specifies sub-GHz operation (Suzi) in the 800 MHz band in Europe and the 900 MHz band in North America.
Sub-GHz signals have low radio wave attenuation, are highly effective at penetrating walls, and can easily reach factories with many obstacles. This significantly improves the flexibility of sensor installation and the success rate of wireless communication.

	Significantly improved long-distance communications Sub-GHz has less attenuation than 2.4GHz, allowing for expanded communication range outdoors, in warehouses, factories, etc. Zigbee 4.0's Suzi PHY provides stable communication even in large-scale sites and multi-tiered structures.
	Improved penetration of buildings and walls Sub-GHz has excellent performance in penetrating walls, ensuring stable communication quality even in reinforced concrete buildings. Even in environments with many obstructions, such as industrial sites, wireless communication makes it easy to reduce wiring.
	Stabilized frequency band with less interference The 2.4GHz band is congested with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE, while the Sub-GHz band is less utilized, resulting in less interference and improved reliability for IoT networks.

③ Fully backward compatible with Zigbee 3.0/Smart Energy

Since existing devices can continue to be used without updating, it helps minimize replacement costs and downtime risks in ECUs (edge control devices) and industrial IoT, which are designed for long-term operation.

	Fully backward compatible with Zigbee 3.0/Smart Energy The fact that existing devices can continue to operate as is ensures the long-term operation required for ECUs and industrial IoT.
	Unified network for smooth coexistence Zigbee 3.0/Smart Energy and Zigbee 4.0 can coexist in a single network.

④ Dense Network Optimization (improving performance in congested environments)

In dense environments where hundreds of nodes are operating, communication collisions and delays are likely to occur, causing bottlenecks in conventional mesh systems. Zigbee 4.0 optimizes collision avoidance and retransmission control in congested environments, ensuring stable throughput even in factories with high node density.

	Standardization of message resend handling Standardize message retransmission handling in case of data transfer failure.
	Improved data polling for sleeping devices Improves communication by making data polling of sleeping devices more efficient.
	APS ACK Enhancement Improves the reliability of APS ACK, which is the acknowledgment of data transfer.

4. Reasons for choosing Zigbee for ECU and industrial equipment development

In ECU development, the reliability of the entire system is determined by the selection of the communication method and the quality of the implementation. Zigbee has been used for many years in industrial equipment and ECUs because it has characteristics that are particularly effective in on-site implementation.

	Energy-saving design that can withstand long-term operation Zigbee's mesh structure allows it to distribute communication loads, and each node can operate for long periods of time with low power consumption.
	Stable in industrial environments It is less susceptible to surrounding noise and obstacles, and its mesh structure allows communication via multiple routes, enhancing reliability.
	Improving development efficiency with Zigbee2MQTT In recent years, there has been an increase in development sites using the open source "Zigbee2MQTT" to expedite PoC and prototyping. Because it is MQTT-based, it is easy to connect to the cloud and is highly rated for its ease of use even in projects with a large number of sensors.

In particular, development using Zigbee2MQTT is becoming a standard tool for B2B applications due to its ease and flexibility for the following three reasons:

1. Easy integration of mixed-brand environments
Zigbee devices from different manufacturers can be integrated using a single MQTT topic system, making it easier to build systems.

2. Quick prototyping
Zigbee2MQTT enables instant integration with MQTT-based applications, allowing rapid prototyping.

3. MQTT-based for easy cloud integration
It can easily connect to the cloud via MQTT, allowing you to use the cloud's visualization and data analysis infrastructure as is.

Summary: Zigbee remains a solid option through 2025-2026

With Zigbee 4.0,

• Security
• Sub-GHz
• backward compatibility
• Large-scale network operability

These and other elements necessary for industrial use have been strengthened, greatly expanding the range of applications.

In factories and infrastructure areas where wireless technology is rapidly becoming more widespread, Zigbee remains a highly practical wireless standard. Zigbee remains a strong option for ECU development that requires the continued operation of existing assets and large-scale, long-term operation. Starting with sub-GHz coverage verification and a PoC using Zigbee2MQTT can expedite the decision to adopt Zigbee.

Related Info

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