The ZigBee Alliance said last week that it would begin designating products as "ZigBee Certified" to ensure that they are interoperable "out of box" and can easily enter into a ZigBee network. In an announcement made at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the ZigBee Alliance said the certification process would enable member companies to test ZigBee-ready products already in the consumer market so they can be fully branded as ZigBee Certified for home, industrial or commercial market use.

Independent test service providers National Technical Services Inc. and TUV Rheinland Group have been enlisted to oversee and conduct the certification testing to ensure that products are interoperable in a variety of environments and end-user applications, the alliance said.

The ZigBee Alliance said manufacturers, OEMs and developers can qualify for one of three test programs:

- The "ZigBee Compliant Platform" testing program for modules or platforms that are intended to be used as building blocks for end products.
- The "ZigBee Certified" testing program for end products built on a ZigBee Compliant Platform using a ZigBee public application profile.
- The "ZigBee Network Capable" testing program for products built upon a ZigBee-compliant platform but using a non-public ZigBee application profile.

All testing programs ensure that ZigBee devices delivered to the market will coexist in any ZigBee network environments designed by the end user, the alliance said.