The Thread Group unveiled its protocol and software stack at Google’s Mountain View headquarters, and is looking to lure the 802.15.4 community, whether currently supporting ZigBee or 6LoWPAN, by convincing it that Thread is offering significant enhancements to those standards, and could in effect be ‘ZigBee 3.0’ or, as Silicon Labs ambitiously put it, “the low data rate, low power version of WiFi”. Current 802.15.4 products can be upgraded in software to Thread.
Silicon Labs, the analog and mixed-signal chip vendor – which is a Thread co-founder along with Nest, ARM, Samsung, Freescale, Yale Security and Big Ass Fans – is playing a critical role. Its software team wrote the spec for Thread’s new IP-based mesh networking stack for the connected home, which builds on the 6LoWPAN implementation already used in Nest devices, and which will underpin the new would-be standard.
Google’s ownership of Nest, the smart home company behind the new Thread connectivity platform, has certainly given the Thread initiative the oxygen of publicity in its bid to be a standard for the internet of things (IoT). However, there are also plenty of technology gaps to be filled in the 6LoWPAN-based protocol, if it is to achieve its goal of dominating the WPAN (wireless personal area network).
This will involve leaping ahead of Bluetooth Smart, the main rival in its key target market, the connected home, as well other contenders like Z-Wave. The other major option here, ZigBee, is based on 802.15.4 like 6LoWPAN and Thread, so could potentially unite itself with the new upstart, though its key backers have shown no signs yet of wanting to dance to Google’s tune.
However, there are plenty of companies which belong to several or all of these groups, or are keeping their powder dry so far, and waiting to be convinced by real performance and ecosystem. Hence the importance of a new beta program for Thread, which has been announced by Silicon Labs and will enable developers and backers to see the platform at work.
Skip Ashton, VP of software engineering at Silicon Labs, said in a statement: “We have developed the Thread networking protocol according to the latest draft specification and now have multi-node networks up and running at key customers using our existing EM35xx wireless SoCs.” The company claims that 500 companies have expressed interest in the beta program.
Silicon Labs intensified its focus on IoT and mesh when it acquired Ember, a pioneer of ultra-low power meshing for sensors and M2M, in May 2012. However, Ember was firmly focused on ZigBee, and contributed significantly to that standard. Some of the ZigBee expertise which remains important in Silicon Labs will be useful to feed into the new standard, since Thread has made no secret of its desire to convert both the 6LoWPAN and ZigBee communities – an outcome which would have logic in terms of consolidating standards, and would address the notorious fragmentation of ZigBee, but which would put two open platforms effectively under Google’s thumb.
One of the reasons why Thread did not just adopt ZigBee was that it had limited mesh capability (32 nodes rather than 250 planned for Thread) as well as lack of harmonized native IP support. The leap forward in meshing which is promised by the new body indicates how far Silicon Labs has come since acquiring Ember, and how strategic a purchase that now looks to be, especially if the chip firm succeeds in providing the pivotal mesh technology for a major IoT standard.
The Thread Group will fast track its IPv6, 802.15.4, mesh-based system as a de facto standard but will also submit it to the ZigBee Alliance for approval.