Passive-ZigBee: Enabling ZigBee Communication in IoT Networks with 1000X+ Less Power Consumption

Within heterogenous IoT sensor networks, users of ZigBee devices expect long-lasting battery usage due to its ultra-low power and duty cycle. In IoT networks, to demonstrate even further ultra-low power consumption, we introduce Passive-ZigBee that demonstrates we can transform an existing productive WiFi signal into a ZigBee packet for a CoTS low-power consumption receiver while consuming 1,440 times lower power compared to traditional ZigBee. Moreover, this low power backscatter radio can bridge between the ZigBee and WiFi devices by relaying data allowing heterogenous radios to communicate with each other. We built a hardware prototype and implement these devices on a commodity ZigBee, WiFi, and an FPGA platform. Our experimental evaluation demonstrates the backscattered WiFi packets can be decoded by CoTS ZigBee receivers over a distance of 55 meters in none-line-of-sight and with human movements. Our Passive-ZigBee can consume only 25μW when transferring sensor data and relay ZigBee and WiFi data compared to traditional ZigBee (36mW). Our FPGA synthesis tool demonstrated the extremely low power consumption.