3: ZigBee Software Architecture > Basic Architecture
Basic Architecture
This page reminds you of the high-level software architecture of ZigBee.
As illustrated in the diagram on the right, the software stack comprises three basic levels:
These levels are described below.
Application Level
The Application level contains the applications that run on the network node. These give the device its functionality - essentially an application converts input into digital data, and/or converts digital data into output. A single node may run several applications - for example, an environmental sensor may contain separate applications to measure temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure.
ZigBee Stack Level
The ZigBee Stack level provides the ZigBee functionality, and provides the glue between the applications and the Physical/Data Link level. It consists of stack layers concerned with network structure, routing and security (encryption, key management and authentication).
Physical/Data Link Level
The Physical/Data Link level is concerned with low-level network operation such as addressing and message transmission/reception. It is based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard and comprises the following two layers:
- MAC (Media Access Control) sub-layer
- PHY (Physical) layer
These layers are described later in this module.
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