Integration News
ZigBee and Thread Group collaborate to develop connected home products

By working together, ZigBee and Thread can jointly provide an interoperable solution to help streamline product development and ultimately improve the consumer’s experience in the connected home.

The ZigBee Cluster Library standardizes application level functionality for a wide variety of devices used in smart homes and other markets. 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 in the home. Both organizations remain committed to their independence while cooperating to benefit their respective members.

“Application level standardization is necessary to provide truly interoperable products to consumers,” said Tobin Richardson, president and CEO of the ZigBee Alliance. “We believe this agreement will deliver value to product developers searching for another solution for connectivity in the smart home.”

The ZigBee Alliance is a global association of companies working together to enable reliable, cost-effective, low-power and wirelessly networked monitoring and control products. ZigBee is a wireless standard used to connect a wide variety of everyday devices to improve comfort, security and convenience in homes and businesses.

“By agreeing to work together, ZigBee and Thread are taking a big step towards reducing fragmentation in the industry,” said Chris Boross, president of the Thread Group and technical product marketing manager, Nest. “Thread is designed to work with and support many different application layer protocols, and we look forward to working with ZigBee to create a combined solution for the connected home.”

Thread enables product developers to create, and consumers to enjoy, products that easily and securely connect to a low-power wireless mesh network, with direct Internet and cloud access for every device. Using proven standards including IPv6 technology with 6LoWPAN and standard 802.15.4 radios as its foundation, Thread gives product developers a reliable low-power, self-healing, and secure network over existing wireless standards.