Smart grid feud? Join the WiFi vs. Zigbee slapfest

. Quick Take: The release of a "ZigBee beats WiFi" report has triggered a slapfest with WiFi proponents immediately issuing a hot-under-the-collar counter claim. Which side is right? Let's crowdsource the answer. Read the article below, skim the competing press releases, then click to vote in the nearby QuickPoll. Use the Talk Back function to elaborate on your opinion, so we can all get smarter on this important issue.  – Jesse Berst

It looks like a feud could be heating up between GE and the Wi-Fi Alliance as the result of claims in a recent GE white paper that Zigbee's wireless technology is at least twice as cost-effective and energy-efficient than WiFi in home area network applications. The Wi-Fi Alliance, not one to turn the other cheek, said the GE paper is "flawed" and "inaccurate." Here's a summary of what the Alliance said is wrong with the GE white paper, Energy Efficiency Comparisons of Wireless Communication Technology Options for Smart Grid Enabled Devices:

·         GE's evaluation is based on old technology for both Zigbee and WiFi and used only one implementation of each

·         The study design leads to inaccurate conclusions on power efficiency

·         The limited scope of the study excluded important criteria in which WiFi has key strengths

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The Alliance said the study used Zigbee Smart Energy Profile 1.0, an older protocol lacking key features now specified by the federal government for smart grid use — and that the single WiFi implementation used is based on 10-year old technology. "Because the evaluation was based on old technologies, its conclusions present an inaccurate characterization of the energy efficiency of both Zigbee and WiFi technologies and cannot be used to draw generalized conclusions about the state of smart grid communications technology today," an Alliance statement said. "When evaluated using Smart Energy Profile 2.0 the differences in energy consumption between WiFi and Zigbee could be much smaller," the statement continued.

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