PAN ID selection

After completing the energy scan, the coordinator scans its list of potential channels (remaining channels after the energy scan) to obtain a list of neighboring PANs. To do this, the coordinator sends a beacon request (broadcast) transmission on each potential channel. All nearby coordinators and routers that have already joined a Zigbee network respond to the beacon request by sending a beacon back to the coordinator. The beacon contains information about which PAN the device is on, including the PAN identifiers (16-bit and 64-bit). This scan (collecting beacons on the potential channels) is typically called an active scan or PAN scan.

After the coordinator completes the channel and PAN scan, it selects a random channel and unused 16-bit PAN ID to start on.