Connecting an XBee interface to the Galileo

One of the most popular and well-documented ways of connecting to the Galileo via an RF connection is to use an XBee device. This device uses a technology called ZigBee and it is made for longer-range wireless communications. These types of devices can work up to a range of one mile. The ZigBee standard is built upon the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, a standard that was created to allow a set of devices to communicate with each other to enable low data rate coordination of multiple devices.

The other standard that you might hear about as you try to purchase or use devices such as these is XBee. This is a specific company's implementation, Digi, of several different wireless standards with standard hardware modules that can connect in many different ways to different embedded systems. They make some that support ZigBee. Here is an image of this type of device that supports ZigBee attached to a small, XBee-specific shield that provides a USB port...