The Z-Wave Alliance, a consortium of global companies that oversees the world's largest interoperable ecosystem for wireless home control products and services announced the one-year anniversary of its Interoperability Lab in Piscataway, N.J.

More than 700 Z-Wave products have been certified using Z-Wave’s worldwide interoperability standard, which guarantees that all Z-Wave devices regardless of manufacturer or application, work together in today’s many wireless applications. The facility and test capabilities raise the bar for interoperability standards, assisting manufacturers, integrators, and adopters alike in advancing home control products to the next level of capabilities and ease of use.

The Z-Wave Interoperability Lab, with its 3,300-square-foot footprint and the largest library of Z-Wave products assembled, is designed to provide real world applications-based testing that ensures interoperability, coexistence and positive user experience for over-the-air, over-the-power line home communications technologies, the alliance explained.

Utilizing the interoperability lab, manufacturers and developers can create application-specific test beds to study how devices communicate with one another under real world conditions, allowing companies to test products and maximize their usability and compatibility before releasing them to the market.

Z-Wave Interoperability Test Lab Manager Soren Blond Daugaard explained, “The lab is outfitted with movable test stands that can be used to simulate the most common types of construction and floor plans found in North American homes. Together with our library of Z-Wave products, this enables us to create a model of almost every conceivable network setup.”

The Interoperability Lab offers two main programs for testing. The option for In-lab testing allows the customer to visit the facility and work directly with the lab to create their own test plans and decide how they will be executed. This creates an environment where the customer becomes the manager and the lab becomes an advisor to the project.

The Interoperability Lab can also play the role of an outside consultant, by offering full service testing, in which the lab works closely with the customer to create the best plan for testing their devices. Once the plan has been laid out, the lab does all the testing and delivers results to the customer when completed.

In addition to product testing, the new facility serves as a training site for those who want to increase their knowledge and experience with Z-Wave technology and applications. Daugaard added, “The lab also offers customized training in the Z-Wave protocol and how to best implement the Z-Wave technology into your products. The lab also has extensive setup support contracts with Z-Wave developers that desire access to Z-Wave implementation support as a provided service.”