Connectivity Standards Alliance

The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), formerly the Zigbee Alliance, is a group of companies that maintain and publish the Zigbee standard and the soon to be Matter standard.[1] The name Zigbee is a registered trademark of this group, and is not a single technical standard. The organization publishes application profiles that allow multiple OEM vendors to create interoperable products. The relationship between IEEE 802.15.4 and Zigbee[2] is similar to that between IEEE 802.11 and the Wi-Fi Alliance.

Connectivity Standards Alliance
Formation2002 (2002)
Type501(c)(6), Trade Association
38-3655436
HeadquartersDavis, California, United States
Websitecsa-iot.org

Over the years, the Alliance's membership has grown to over 500 companies, including the likes of Comcast, Ikea, Legrand, Samsung SmartThings, and Amazon.[3] The Zigbee Alliance has three levels of membership: adopter, participant, and promoter.[3] The adopter members are allowed access to completed Zigbee specifications and standards, and the participant members have voting rights, play a role in Zigbee development, and have early access to specifications and standards for product development.

The requirements for membership in the Zigbee Alliance cause problems for free-software developers because the annual fee conflicts with the GNU General Public Licence.[4] The requirements for developers to join the Zigbee Alliance also conflict with most other free-software licenses.[5] The Zigbee Alliance board of directors has been asked to make their license compatible with GPL, but refused.[6] Bluetooth has GPL-licensed implementations.[7]

As of May 11, 2021, the Zigbee Alliance has been rebranded to Connectivity Standards Alliance.[8]

References
  1. "About the ZigBee Alliance". ZigBee.org. ZigBee Alliance. Archived from the original on September 20, 2012. Retrieved October 18, 2012.
  2. "Wireless Sensor Networks Research Group". Sensor Networks. November 17, 2008. Archived from the original on 2012-04-19. Retrieved October 18, 2012.
  3. "Our Members". ZigBee.org. Zigbee Alliance. August 13, 2014. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
  4. "FAQ for BEN WPAN". en.Qi-Hardware.com. Qi Hardware. "Innovation" section. ZigBee is only royalty-free if not used for commercial purposes
  5. "Zigbee, Linux, and the GPL". Freak Labs. Archived from the original on February 16, 2010. Retrieved June 14, 2009.
  6. McCarthy, Kieren (May 21, 2015). "The Internet of Things becomes the Game of Thrones in standards war". The Register. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  7. "Common questions". Bluez - Official Linux Bluetooth protocol stack. BlueZ Project. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  8. "The Zigbee Alliance Rebrands as Connectivity Standards Alliance". zigbeealliance.org. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
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