Led By Nest, 'Thread' Might Be Most Promising IoT Initiative Yet

An anonymous reader writes Nest, Big A%@ Fans, Yale door locks, ARM, Freescale, Samsung and Silicon Labs launch the Thread Group, a standards initiative for using 6LoWPAN-based network technology with mesh capabilities optimized for home automation. Because it blends IPv6 with low-power 802.15.4 radios, a layer of security, peer-to-peer communications, and other special sauce for whole-house connectivity, Thread looks extremely promising in an increasingly crowded field. Plus, millions of units of enabled products are already deployed by way of Nest's little-known Weave technology. There's a press release. Thread is based on open technology, but it's not clear that the protocol specifications will be available for non-members. No hardware changes are required for devices with 802.15.4 radios, and the group claims the new protocol fixes enough flaws in existing standards (mostly ZigBee) to be worth the software upgrade. Promises include increased reliability (mesh network with multiple routing points), lower power use (by not requiring sensors to wake up for traffic from other sensors), and easier bridging between the mesh network and Internet (thanks to using IPv6).

Comments

WTF

[rossdee]

Would someone like to translate the summary into english?

" and other special sauce "

Is this open sauce or propriety like whats on KFC

Re:WTF

[Sockatume]

"If you can't season it, you don't known it."

RMS prepares scrambled eggs using home-grown peppers according to a GPL recipe.

"2014 is the year of Linux on the hot dog".

Re:'Big Ass Fans'

[thebigmacd]

http://www.bigassfans.com/

They are actually quite a successful and respected company.

One

[ColdWetDog]

One protocol to supervise them all, One mesh to find them
One protocol to bring them in, and in the darkness bind them.

In Mountain View, where the Shadows lie.

(Hey, sorry. It's early.)