Skip to content

Generic best practice tips on improving Zigbee network range and general stability

Jump to bottom Edit New page
Hedda edited this page Oct 24, 2022 · 2 revisions

Improving Zigbee network range and stability

Poor signal quality or interference can lead to transmission problems and show symptoms such as or errors when sending and/or receiving Zigbee messages that will cause significant degradation in Zigbee network performance. Below is some fundamental background information and tips for a Zigbee setup starting point to achieve better signal quality, coverage and range.

Following these essential optimization tips will typically resolve many known issues caused by a bad setup of Zigbee Coordinator adapter and Zigbee network mesh or Zigbee devices. At the very least taking these actions should improve most message transmitting and receiving issues caused by not knowing the basics needed to workaround related Zigbee limitations.

Understanding common causes of problems in Zigbee setups

  • Zigbee Coordinator adapter hardware:
    • Poor placement of the Zigbee Coordinator and/or wrong orientation of Zigbee Coordinator antenna.
    • Poor / outdated / incompatible Zigbee Coordinator firmware on the Zigbee Coordinator adapter.
    • Old, outdated or underpowered Zigbee Coordinator hardware or poor Zigbee Coordinator antenna.
  • Zigbee Coordinator and Zigbee devices sensitive to all types of RFI/EMI/EMF interference:
    • Electromagnetic interference (EMI) from electronics caused by Electromagnetic Fields (EMF).
    • USB 3.0 ports and computer peripherals are known culprits of EMI/EMF disrupting Zigbee.
    • 2.4 GHz Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) from Wi-Fi Routers and Wi-Fi Access Points, or others.
    • Radio proximity as well conflicting radio frequencies (Wi-Fi) overlapping used Zigbee frequency.
  • Too few or far distance between Zigbee devices in Zigbee network mesh:
    • Too many obstacles between the Zigbee Coordinator or Zigbee Router and Zigbee End Device.
      • Zigbee network mesh depends on Zigbee Router devices to extend range and coverage.
      • All individual Zigbee devices do have poor signal penetration and not long range.
    • Too few Zigbee Router devices Zigbee Coordinator or Zigbee Router and Zigbee End Device.
      • Only mains-powered devices can be repeaters that extend network range and coverage.
      • Any battery-operated products are a Zigbee End Device and will never be a Zigbee Router.

Simple actions that should improve most Zigbee setups

  • Zigbee Coordinator adapter hardware:
    • Try different physical placement and orientations of Zigbee Coordinator or its antenna.
      • Optimal placement of Zigbee Coordinator is as much in middle of the house as possible.
      • Try to place the Zigbee coordinator at some distance way from walls, ceilings and floors.
      • Try different orientations of your Zigbee antenna (or whole Zigbee coordinator adapter).
    • Update to a later released Zigbee Coordinator firmware on the Zigbee Coordinator adapter.
      • Updating FW is easy and community often provide newer firmware than manufacturer.
    • Buy a more powerful Zigbee Coordinator adapter based on a newer/modern Zigbee chip hardware.
      • Recommended as older adapter might work but have obsolete hardware and/or firmware.
  • Zigbee Coordinator and Zigbee devices RFI sensitive as susceptible to all types of EMI/EMF interference:
    • Use a long USB extension cable to place Zigbee Coordinator away from interference and obstacles.
      • Try to make sure the USB extension cable has proper shielded (thick cables usually do).
      • Longer USB extension cable also make it easier to orient Zigbee Coordinator and antenna.
    • Only connect Zigbee Coordinator USB adapter to a USB 2.0 ports (or a powered USB 2.0 hub).
      • USB 3.0 ports and peripherals are infamously known for causing EMI/EMF interference.
    • Shield close unshielded computers and unshielded peripherals by using metal enclosures/chassis.
      • Single-board-computers and USB hard drives are especially known as source of EMI/EMF.
    • Change Wi-Fi Router and Access Points channels to not interfere with the default Zigbee channel.
      • Changing Wi-Fi channel on Wi-Fi devices is recommended over changing Zigbee channel.
    • Change Zigbee channel on Zigbee network if have too many strong sources of overlapping Wi-Fi.
      • Changing Zigbee channel is considered a last resort so make sure to do research before.
        • Normally require re-pairing all, and not all devices support all Zigbee channels.
  • Too few or far distance between Zigbee devices in Zigbee network mesh:
    • Zigbee network mesh depends on having Zigbee Router devices to extend range and coverage:
      • Add additional mains-powered Zigbee devices known to be good as Zigbee Router device.
        • Add more Zigbee Router devices to extend network mesh range and coverage.
        • Note that not all mains-powered Zigbee devices act as a Zigbee Router device.
        • Some Zigbee Router devices are know to only work well with same brand devices.
      • Buy a few known good dedicated Zigbee Router product (ex. “IKEA Tradfri Signal Repeater”).
        • Search community forums for "Zigbee signal repeater" or "Zigbee range extender".
      • Buy a few extra new Zigbee USB adapters to use after flashing with Zigbee Router firmware.
      • Reflash/reuse Zigbee USB adapters to Zigbee Router when upgrading Zigbee Coordinator.

External resources for initial Zigbee setup optimizations:

Best practices to avoid pairing/connection difficulties

Verify that you try to follow recommended best practices to avoid pairing and/or connection issues:

  • If possible try to pair your Zigbee devices in their intended final location, (and not pair it next to the Zigbee coordinator and then need to move it after).
    • Pairing a Zigbee device next to the Zigbee coordinator and then moving it later can result in dropped/lost connections or other issues.
      • If the device you want to add is not brand new and as such never paired before then you always have to make sure to first manually reset the device to its factory default settings before you will be able to add/pair it.
  • Some battery-operated Zigbee devices are known to have problems with pairing if they have Low battery voltage.
    • Some people have reported replacing the battery on their newly received Xiaomi/Aqara devices solved pairing issues.
  • Check that you have enough Zigbee router devices (also known as Zigbee signal repeaters or range extenders) and if you do not have any, invest and add some mains-powered devices that will work as Zigbee routers.
    • Aim to start out with mains-powered devices before adding battery-operated devices as a "weak" Zigbee network mesh (e.g., the device is too far from the Zigbee coordinator or a Zigbee router) may prevent some devices from being paired. Zigbee router devices are also needed to increase the maximum of devices that can be connected to your Zigbee mesh network.
    • Note that some Zigbee devices are not fully compatible with all brands of Zigbee router devices. Xiaomi/Aqara devices are for example known not to work with Zigbee router devices from Centralite, General Electrics, Iris, Ledvance/OSRAM, LIGHTIFY/Sylvania, Orvibo, PEQ, Securifi, and SmartThings/Samsung. Better results can usually be achieved by using mains-powered devices IKEA and Nue/3A Home or dedicated DIY routing devices based on Texas Instruments CC253x/CC26x2 and XBee Series 2/3 Zigbee radios.
  • Be patient as the pairing of some Zigbee devices may require multiple attempts and you may sometimes need to try again and again.
    • Some devices, like example those from Xiaomi/Aqara, are known to not be 100% compliant with the standard Zigbee specifications and may therefore require many paring attempts over 10-20 minutes or longer.

Using router devices

You use routers to increase the number of Zigbee devices that can be used in a network. The total number of Zigbee devices that you have on a Zigbee network depends on a few things, and the Zigbee coordinator hardware and its firmware only play a larger role when you have a large Zigbee network with a lot of devices. More important is how many directly connected devices ("direct children") versus how many routers are connected to your Zigbee coordinator. Zigpy library which ZHA uses has an upper limit is 32 direct children but if your Zigbee coordinator hardware is powerful enough then you can still have hundreds of Zigbee devices connected through routers.

Even the least powerful Zigbee coordinator hardware supported by Zigpy (CC2530/2531) and its default firmware only support 20 devices connected directly to the coordinator. However, by having routers in your Zigbee network the mesh network size can be extended. You can assume that most if not all mains/AC-powered devices e.g. wall-plugs and always powered-on lightbulbs in your Zigbee network can serve as a router, you can even use CC2530/CC2531 with router firmware as your routers (which in turn has a limit of 21 devices).

An example is using the default CC2530/CC2531 coordinator firmware + two CC2531 routers your device limit will be:

  • Coordinator: 15 devices - 2 routers = 13
  • Router one: + 21 devices
  • Router two: + 21 devices
  • Total device limit = 55 devices
Add a custom footer
Add a custom sidebar
Clone this wiki locally