by Brianna Crandall — January 16, 2017 — The ZigBee Alliance, an association of companies creating, maintaining and delivering open, global standards for the low-power wireless Internet of Things (IoT), and the Thread Group, an organization focused on making Thread the foundation for the Internet of Things in the home and beyond, recently announced that multiple members of both organizations have demonstrated prototypes that run the ZigBee Alliance’s universal language for smart devices on Thread networks.
The demonstrations, shown privately at the Thread Group’s Members Meeting in November and displayed publicly in both organizations’ booths at the CES show last week, are a key milestone in their liaison agreement, and highlight accelerating momentum behind an emerging ecosystem of connected products that will interoperate over Thread Internet protocol (IP) networks using the widely deployed ZigBee language.
Already deployed in hundreds of millions of devices worldwide, the ZigBee Alliance’s universal language standardizes application-level functionality for a wide variety of smart devices. The liaison agreement to bring this language to Thread networks is the first step in unlocking its value for driving interoperability throughout the IoT across numerous types of networking layers.
Thread is a wireless networking protocol that can support multiple low-bandwidth, IP-based application protocols to provide secure and reliable networks, simple connectivity and low power.
Grant Erickson, president of the Thread Group, commented:
As our two organizations near completion of our respective product development solutions that bring the ZigBee universal language to Thread networks, multiple members have already demonstrated the value of this liaison agreement and its promise for delivering a consistent product experience over IP networks. That we have so quickly reached the technology demonstration stage, with many product, silicon and solutions providers participating, is clear evidence that market demand is driving interoperable IP-based technologies. Our members are working hard to meet this demand, and as a result of their early investments, their product development cycles are well underway.
Both organizations showcased demonstrations at CES from companies including MMB Networks, Nortek, NXP Semiconductors, Osram, P&G, Resolution Products, Schneider Electric, Silicon Labs, Somfy, Yale and Zen Thermostat.
Tobin Richardson, president and CEO of the ZigBee Alliance, added:
A key strength of the ZigBee Alliance’s technologies is our application layer — the only mature, widely deployed, interoperable and open IoT application language. Alliance members from chip suppliers to consumer product manufacturers have worked hard to bring our proven application layer to Thread’s exciting IP mesh networking technology. This creates compelling new value — allowing vendors developing ZigBee solutions today to leverage that investment across multiple networks and markets.
The Thread Group and the ZigBee Alliance have worked to coordinate their roadmaps for specifications, branding guidelines, and test and certification programs for smart products speaking the ZigBee language that run on Thread’s IP-based networks. The Thread 1.1 specification is currently available to members, and the ZigBee Alliance announced details at CES for their solution that enables their universal application language to run over Thread networks. This will be followed by completion and launch of their test, certification and branding programs. In addition, the organizations will collaborate to enable concurrent certification to simplify the process for product vendors that want to leverage both technologies.
Both organizations remain committed to their independence while cooperating to benefit their respective members. Members of both the Thread Group and ZigBee Alliance enjoy early access to specifications and tools, and have opportunities to participate in and influence standards development and marketing, and take part in technology demonstrations that drive the future of the IoT.
