Zigbee coordinator operation

Form a network

The coordinator is responsible for selecting the channel, PAN ID, security policy, and stack profile for a network. Since a coordinator is the only device type that can start a network, each Zigbee network must have one coordinator. After the coordinator has started a network, it can allow new devices to join the network. It can also route data packets and communicate with other devices on the network.

To ensure the coordinator starts on a good channel and unused PAN ID, the coordinator performs a series of scans to discover any RF activity on different channels (energy scan) and to discover any nearby operating PANs (PAN scan). The process for selecting the channel and PAN ID are described in the following topics.

Security policy

The security policy determines which devices are allowed to join the network, and which device(s) can authenticate joining devices. See Zigbee security for a detailed discussion of various security policies.