Software helps accelerate market adoption of thread protocol

Originally released in July 2015, the Thread specification has undergone significant enhancements including the addition of new capabilities such as channel agility and master key change. All Thread-enabled products will be evaluated against the new Thread 1.1 hardware test bed and test harness to ensure conformance.

The Thread Group’s test program is managed by the independent UL test lab, which provides rigorous testing for Thread-based products to ensure they work together seamlessly and securely.

As a founding member of the Thread Group and holding the chair of the Group’s technical committee, Silicon Labs has been instrumental in defining and developing the Thread specification. Silicon Labs introduced its Thread protocol stack to the market in July 2015.

Hundreds of customers are now evaluating Silicon Labs’ Thread stack and extensive development tools, and several key customers are actively developing connected home products they plan to launch when the certification program opens.

“Thread technology continues to gain traction as the leading IP-based mesh networking solution for the IoT,” said Skip Ashton, Vice President of Software at Silicon Labs and Vice President of Technology for the Thread Group.

“The release of Thread stacks conforming to the Thread 1.1 specification is welcome news for the connected home market and for hundreds of companies seeking to develop and certify Thread-enabled products. As the market leader in mesh networking silicon and software, Silicon Labs has more than a decade of experience in helping customers and ecosystem partners develop and certify their mesh networking products.”

Thread technology from Silicon Labs offers a simple, secure and scalable way to wirelessly interconnect hundreds of connected home devices and to seamlessly bridge those devices to the Internet.

Thread software provides a self-healing, IPv6-based mesh network capable of scaling to 250+ nodes with no single point of failure. The protocol provides robust support for sleepy end nodes, extending battery life and easing commissioning.

Silicon Labs’ Thread stack uses banking-class, end-to-end security to join nodes to the network and proven AES-128 cryptography to secure all networking transactions. A leading supplier of wireless connectivity silicon, software and solutions for the (IoT, Silicon Labs has shipped more than 100 million mesh networking SoCs and modules to customers worldwide.

Silicon Labs’ protocol stack conforming with the Thread 1.1 specification is available now to customers free of charge. Silicon Labs’ wireless connectivity products for Thread applications include Mighty Gecko and EM358x wireless SoCs based on ARM Cortex-M cores, as well as wireless modules optimised for mesh networking.