A group of wireless personal area network (WPAN) standards from the IEEE for low-power devices in both industrial and consumer applications. See
WPAN and
IoT.
802.15.1 - Bluetooth
Working with the Bluetooth special interest group (SIG), the IEEE standardized the lower layers of the Bluetooth specification. Approved by the IEEE in 2002, 802.15.1 is fully compatible with Bluetooth 1.1. See
Bluetooth.
802.15.2 - PAN/LAN Co-existence
Explores methods for interoperability between wireless PANs (WPANs) and wireless LANs (WLANs), as well as the capability of transmitting in the same geographic area without interference. See
WPAN and
wireless LAN.
802.15.3 - High Data Rate
A WPAN standard for data rates greater than 20 Mbps.
802.15.3a - Very High Data Rate - UWB
The Task Group was dissolved in 2006; however, the IEEE narrowed proposals into two, one of which was multiband OFDM (MB-OFDM), adopted by the WiMedia Alliance for UWB (see
UWB).
802.15.4 - Low Data Rate
Devices in low-rate WPANs (LR-WPANs) run on batteries for years. Nodes can be configured as reduced function devices (RFDs), which communicate with full function devices (FFDs) only. FFDs can communicate with RFDs and FFDs. The 802.15.4 standard specifies only network layers 1 and 2 (see
MAC layer), while examples of the higher-layer protocols are
ZigBee,
WirelessHART,
Thread and
MiWi. See
6LoWPAN.
802.15.5 - Mesh Networking
Enables mesh networking for 802.15.3 high data rate and 802.15.4 low data rate transmission. See
mesh network.
802.15.6 - Body Area Networks
Supports transmission of low-power sensors for health care as well as entertainment. See
BAN.