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In the ever-changing global economy there is a growing number of product regulatory compliance requirement standards being imposed on manufacturers. Before marketing their products to domestic and international customers a manufacturer must deal with regulatory issues that apply to the development of their products. This results in the manufacturer having to have a regulatory compliance function within his company’s organizational structure that is staffed by competent well-trained personnel. This includes a Compliance Specialist who will need to stay abreast of the steadily changing regulatory compliance requirements, technology advances, and new areas of product regulations. The primary areas where product regulatory compliance requirements are applied are EMC, Product Safety, Environmental Protection, and Energy Conservation. All of these requirements have a direct impact on a product’s development program that includes its quality and reliability attributes.

Wireless alliances like Wi-Fi and ZigBee certify wireless devices for interoperability which to the end user provide a confidence level of smooth operation between these devices from different manufacturers. For instance this level of interoperability is necessary (but not sufficient) to ensure communications on WLAN Wi-Fi segments containing an Access Point (AP) and a number of wireless client cards. The same concept applies to ZigBee networks where interoperability gives a confidence level for ensuring operation of devices such as a light bulb and a switch, an RF4CE remote control and paired TV, DVD player or set top box, but also insufficient to assure seamless operation of the network over time and under variable environmental conditions especially in demand-response time critical scenarios.