Which kind of wireless protocols are currently used on the RF modules

RF modules, especially SoC modules, are frequently used to communicate according to a pre-defined wireless standard, including: Zigbee, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Wi-Fi, IEEE 802.15.4, Z-Wave, Wirepas,etc.

However, RF modules also frequently communicate using proprietary protocols, and Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee are 3 protocols that are mainly used:

Wi-Fi Protocol: 

Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) is the most popular IOT communication protocols for wireless local area network (WLAN) that utilizes the IEEE 802.11 standard through 2.4 GHz UHF and 5 GHz ISM frequencies. Wi-Fi provides Internet access to devices that are within the range of about 20 - 40 meters from the source. It has a data rate upto 600 Mbps maximum, depending on channel frequency used and the number of antennas. In embedded systems, ESP series controllers from Espressif are popular for building IoT based Applications. ESP32 and ESP8266 are the most commonly use wifi modules for embedded applications. 

Bluetooth Protocol:

Bluetooth is a technology used for exchanging data wirelessly over short distances and preffered over vaouros IOT network protocols. It uses short-wavelength UHF radio waves of frequency ranging from 2.4 to 2.485 GHz in the ISM band. The Bluetooth technology has 3 different versions based on its applications:

Bluetooth: The Bluetooth that is used in devices for communication has many applications in IOT/M2M devices nowadays. It is a technology using which two devices can communicate and share data wirelessly. It operates at 2.4GHz ISM band and the data is split in packets before sending and then is shared using any one of the designated 79 channels operating at 1 MHz of bandwidth.

BLE (Bluetooth 4.0, Bluetooth Low Energy): The BLE has a single main difference from Bluetooth that it consumes low power. With that, it makes the product of low cost & more long-lasting than Bluetooth.

iBeacon: It is a simplified communication technique used by Apple and is completely based on Bluetooth technology. The Bluetooth 4.0 transmits an ID called UUID for each user and makes it each to communicate between iPhone users.

Bluetooth has many applications, such as in telephones, tablets, media players, robotics systems, etc. The range of Bluetooth technology is between 50 – 150 meters and the data is being shared at a maximum data rate of 1 Mbps.

ZigBee Protocol:

ZigBee is another iot wireless protocols has features similar to the the Bluetooth technology. But it follows the IEEE 802.15.4 standard and is a high-level communication protocol. It has some advantages similar to Bluetooth i.e. low-power consumption, robustness, high security, and high scalability.

Zigbee offers a range of about 10 – 100 meters maximum and data rate to transfer data between communicated devices is around 250 Kbps. It has a large number of applications in technologies like M2M & IOT.