Certification News Archive

The Certification tools have been updated to support the latest specification requirements. This means that the Z-Wave Plus v2 program now uses form revision 10 and the Z-Wave Plus program uses form revision 30. The old form revisions will be deprecated on February 22, 2022 and from that date submissions based on Z-Wave Plus form revision 29 and Z-Wave Plus v2 form revision 9will be rejected in Initial Review. The Compliance Test Tool (CTT) has also been updated and the latest version 3.2.3 must be used when creating tests.

The Compliance Test Tool v3 and the number of automated test cases introduced in this version has reduced the time needed in verification. So as of October 1, 2021, the cost of certifying a Z-Wave Plus v2 Z/IP GW Controller device has been reduced by 25% to $6,000 USD.

• From April 4, 2022 all new certifications must be based upon the Z-Wave v2 certification program. Re-certifications of Z-Wave Plus certified devices will still be possible.
• When transferring to the Z-Wave Plus v2 program, users will benefit from the full functionalities provided in the CTTv3 tool, such as 80% automated test cases and direct interaction with the Portal forms. The Z-Wave Plus v2 certification program is made more user friendly by automatically pre-selecting the form items that are mandatory based upon product information provided by the user.
• Z-Wave Plus v2 provides equal high level of interoperability on any new Z-Wave product brought to the ecosystem in Z-Wave Plus v2 such as: any device type MUST support the same package of command classes:
  • SmartStart
  • OTA
  • Indication mechanism

Z-Wave Long Range is a subset of manual test cases in the Z-Wave Plus v2 certification program which is available for 700 series US products. Z-Wave Long Range comes with a new badge logo that must be used if the product is Z-Wave Long Range certified and can be found here.

We are excited to announce the launch of the new Z-Wave Alliance Certification Portal, available on July 5, 2021, under the following URL for all Z-Wave Alliance members: https://certification.z-wavealliance.org

The new ZWA Portal is a complete Z-Wave Certification system that builds on the old Portal by incorporating old features and integrating both Technical and Market Certification. This gives you:

• One sign-in
• One system
• One view
• One case

All the great features still apply in the new ZWA Portal including CTT integration and cloning which simplifies and reduces the time spent in certification. It is even possible to clone a case from the old Portal to he newest form revision in the new ZWA Portal. The old Portal will remain open for ongoing certifications and for re-certifications, using the old user account under the following URL: https://z-wavecertification.z-wavealliance.org

A few important points:

• Access to the ZWA Portal requires Z-Wave Alliance membership & login. For further information please visit https://z-wavealliance.org/join/
• If your company is already a Z-Wave Alliance member go to https://sdomembers.z-wavealliance.org/user/register to register for a user account
• In the ZWA Portal, 3rd party editors can be invited to the case by the case owner. It is however required that 3rd parties be Z-Wave Alliance members
• There is no change in certification requirements when comparing the latest form revisions 7 & 27 from the old Portal, with newest form revisions 9 &29 from the new ZWA Portal

• From April 1, 2021 OEMs may submit for a Long Range Pre-Certification based upon Specification version 2021A. This means OEMs can certify a device, obtain a certification number and the right to market, and sell it as Z-Wave Long Range compliant. The Z-Wave Alliance is not accountable for the outcome of the IPR Review Period so Long Range Pre-Certification is at the risk of the OEM. If there are no comments to the IPR Review Period, Pre-Certified devices will automatically be added to the Z-Wave Product Catalog once the IPR Review Period has finished. If comments are received during the IPR Review Period, these will be addressed by the Z-Wave Alliance and updates will be made available for re-certification. The IPR Review Period is expected to finish before August 1, 2021.
• Z-Wave Long Range certification is a subset of 6 manual test cases for 700 series US devices. It comes with a new badge logo that must be used if the device is Z-Wave Long Range certified and can be found here.
• 2021 Draft Specifications can be found on the Application Working Group site on: https://sdomembers.z-wavealliance.org/wg/AWG/document/

LibS2 is a subset of additional S2 tests required for devices that are not based upon Z/IP Gateway. Up until now this was a separate individual tests conducted by Silicon Labs and lately by Pepper One. LibS2 is now implemented in the Certification Portal and the CTT which means OEM can run the tests during self-certification, like any other Z-Wave requirement

• As of March 29, 2021 specification version 2020C is the in-force for new certifications
• Specification version 2020B will remain certifiable for cases already in the Portal until September 30, 2021
• The 2020C release of the specification may be found here