For consumers: Thread 1.4 will make networks more user-friendly, interoperable, and robust, benefiting anyone looking to start or grow their Matter smart home setup. It simplifies the process for adding new devices to your network by standardizing how devices and Thread Border Routers, regardless of the manufacturer, recognize and trust each other. New Thread devices can be easily added to your existing Thread network to create a more robust, reliable, and secure smart home experience.

Product managers and developers of smart home and commercial building devices implementing Thread as the network layer will have more opportunities to innovate, reduce overhead, and can offer better customer support — all of which can ultimately deliver richer end user experiences and boost brand loyalty. For more details, see the Thread 1.4 Features white paper.

Professional installers can improve their profitability and productivity, as these enhancements can ease the installation process, provide more troubleshooting capabilities, and reduce on-site time and support requests.

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• Credential Sharing
• Thread Over Infrastructure
• Network Diagnostics
• Commissioning at Scale
• Enhanced robustness
• Direct cloud connectivity

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The communication between the Thread Border Router and Thread device during the Thread Credentials Sharing process is protected using a secure DTLS (Datagram Transport Layer Security) connection. This connection is established using the Thread One-Time Security Code as the shared secret. DTLS provides encryption, integrity protection, and authentication for the data exchanged, ensuring that the credentials are transmitted securely.

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The Thread specifications use the same types of security technologies that make applications across the Internet safe – the ones that keep your banking transactions, Amazon purchases and social media sessions secure.

We’ve adapted them to support low power devices that must automatically maintain network security with little or no user interaction. Please refer to this Thread Blog for more.

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The assurance of internet connectivity gives people the ability to remotely control their devices. It also means product makers can build devices with more dynamic features, such as a thermostat that responds to weather changes in real-time. They can also send software updates to the devices, and perform diagnostics to provide better technical support.

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Thread 1.4 enhancements in the Matter smart-home environment give people several practical benefits:

Easier network setup and management: Thread 1.4 will make networks more user-friendly, interoperable, and robust, benefiting anyone looking to start or grow their Matter smart home setup. It simplifies the process for adding new devices to your network by standardizing how devices and Thread Border Routers, regardless of the manufacturer, recognize and trust each other. New Thread devices can be easily added to your existing Thread network to create a more robust, reliable, and secure smart home experience.

Wider, more reliable networks: You can add Thread Border Routers to the same network, which will make the mesh stronger, farther reaching and more reliable. Thread’s low-power mesh network lets devices communicate directly with each other, not just through the router. This means if a device fails, network data is rerouted through other devices, ensuring reliable connectivity throughout your home.

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No, building on previous iterations, Thread 1.4 is fully backward compatible, maintaining devices’ usability today, and opening new possibilities for IoT adoption in homes and commercial buildings in the future.

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Thread 1.4 standardizes methods for Thread devices to provide network configuration and status data. Examples of diagnostic data include: detailed network topology information, including wireless links between devices and their properties; data packet flow insights, quantifying and categorizing types of packets sent and received; device-specific information such as vendor, model, software version, and Thread device type, and more.

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Thread addresses the need for a better way to connect products in the home. Built on open standards and IPv6 technology with IEEE 802.15.4 as its foundation, Thread is a mesh networking technology that offers numerous advantages over other wireless standards. Thread networks are secure, self-healing, low latency and reliable with no single point of failure, extend wireless coverage as the network scales, eliminate the need for dedicated hubs/gateways, have a low-energy footprint and simple connectivity and low power. With Thread, product developers and consumers can easily and securely connect more than 250 devices into a low-power, wireless mesh network that also includes direct Internet and cloud access for every device.

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Thread targets a wide variety of products for connected home and commercial IoT applications, including climate control, lighting, safety, security and access control.

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Thread is an IP-based mesh networking protocol, making it easier to communicate with other IP connected devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers to create and control a Thread network. And, because Thread is IP, the core value of its products, applications, and ecosystems is maximized when connecting to other IP network links, Devices using other technologies may interact with Thread devices through a hub or gateway.

To get a little more technical, it's important to understand that Thread is a connectivity technology, similar to Wi-Fi. It's up to each manufacturer of a Thread device to choose how their product will interact with other devices. Some may use their own application and connect to other products through the cloud. Some may use an open-standards based application layer like Dotdot to enable their device to interact locally with other devices on the network.

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Thread Certification is now open and there are a number of "Built on Thread" certified devices publicly available. For developers, there are a number of vendors offering silicon, software, and development tools to help you build Thread devices.

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Thread addresses the networking layer - routing, commissioning and security. Similar to technologies like Wi-Fi, Thread creates the network for product vendors to develop their application on top of. The application layer itself is not covered by Thread, but runs on top of it as seen by this diagram:



While developers can create their own application layer, there are also established application layers that enable interoperability between devices. Examples of application layers that work on top of Thread include Dotdot by CSA, IoTivity from the Open Connectivity Forum (OCF) and KNX IoT.

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Thread implements a simple commissioning process and requires network security. A user typically commissions and authorizes a device onto the network using a smartphone, tablet or computer. A GUI-rich Thread device within the network can also be used to commission and authorize devices. A security session is established between the new device and the commissioning device to authenticate and provide credentials. Once the commissioning session is established, the device attaches to the Thread network and uses MAC encryption for all messages.

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"Sleepy" or "end-node" devices can poll parents for messages and are not required to check-in on a periodic basis. The parent device holds messages for the sleepy devices. This allows for low-power operation that can be adapted to the requirements of each device. Sleepy devices automatically switch parents if the connection is lost. See our "Value of Low-Power" White Paper for more details.

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Contributor and Sponsor Thread Group members can contribute to the development of the specification including maintenance and updates, market education and marketing plans, and the certification program, through participation in the committees and working groups-

• Tools available for developers - Thread Developer Page
• Open Source
  • OpenThread released by Google
  • OpenWeave
  • Zephyr
• Getting Started with Thread
• Thread Membership Benefits

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Thread Group offers an Academia membership level.

The Thread Group welcomes interaction with academic and non-profit researchers, faculty, and students but recognizes the financial structure and limitations of such organizations can often make broad participation in industry alliances burdensome. The Academic membership tier offers to qualified institutions all of the benefits of the Affiliate membership tier-plus the ability to participate in general or annual meetings-at no annual cost.

So, whether using Thread to support other academic projects or research as an ingredient technology and building block or analyzing and publishing research on or performance studies about Thread itself, the Academic membership tier provides a easy path to make it happen.

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A mesh is important in the smart home where devices need to talk to each other. Thread’s shared mesh network allows you to easily extend your wireless coverage with connected devices while using less power to connect compared to Wi-Fi. This means battery sensors can last for years, and lights designed for energy efficiency can stay efficient and connected even when you don’t need light.

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Amazon, Apple, Google and the Connectivity Standards Alliance announced Matter as a way to create a unified standard for communication between smart home devices. The goal is to make it simpler for brands to build devices that are compatible with products such as Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant. Matter is built around three technologies: Bluetooth LE for setup, Wi-FI for high bandwidth use cases such as streaming video from a security camera, and Thread for low bandwidth devices such as door locks and motion sensors.

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Thread brings multiple benefits to consumers including reliability and fast response times. With Thread, users experience instant response times with its direct device-to-device, device-to-mobile and device-to-cloud communications. And since a Thread network has the ability to self-heal, it makes dropped connections a thing of the past.

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Thread addresses the need for a better way to connect products in the home. Built on open standards and IPv6 technology with IEEE 802.15.4 as its foundation, Thread is a mesh networking technology that offers numerous advantages over other wireless standards. Thread networks are secure, self-healing, low latency and reliable with no single point of failure, extend wireless coverage as the network scales, eliminate the need for dedicated hubs/gateways, have a low-energy footprint and simple connectivity and low power. With Thread, product developers and consumers can easily and securely connect more than 250 devices into a low-power, wireless mesh network that also includes direct Internet and cloud access for every device .

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Thread is a low-power wireless mesh networking protocol designed for easy integration in the connected home. An IP-based open standard, Thread allows smart home devices to securely and reliably connect directly to the cloud. The smart home is composed of Wi-Fi and Ethernet devices, and the IP backbone in these plus Thread technologies allows Thread devices to communicate directly with Wi-Fi/Ethernet devices. Home automation using IoT devices such as lights, thermostats, door locks and security cameras offers consumers convenience and efficiency.

• Built for IoT: Thread solves the complexities of the IoT, addressing challenges such as interoperability, security, power, latency and architecture requirements. It is a low-power wireless mesh networking protocol based on the universally supported Internet Protocol (IP) and built using open and proven standards.
• IP-based: Thread brings the Internet to the Internet of Things by using the Internet’s proven, open standards to create an Internet Protocol (IPv6) based mesh network.
• Convergence and Coexistence: Thread’s IP foundation is application layer agnostic, offering product manufacturers the flexibility to choose one (or multiple) app layers for their use case to connect devices across multiple link technologies. With growing demand for interoperability and coexistence, Thread’s cross-industry membership believes in networking technologies that support IP as a point of convergence for the IoT industry. Further, Thread’s shared mesh allows users to easily extend their wireless coverage simply by plugging in devices. And with shared mesh, you’re not tied to a single device manufacturer.
• Familiar and Future Proof: With Thread, developers can bring their apps, devices, systems and services to-market faster because they’re using the same rich set of tools available for the Internet. What’s more, application layer and cloud services in Thread devices can be changed over time, because Thread is application-layer agnostic.
• Market Ready: Developers can select from a number of Thread certified stacks, silicon platforms, or modules to build their products or choose from an array of certified Thread products to build an ecosystem.

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Thread is based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard which was created with a single purpose of providing a low-power, low-bandwidth way to reliably connect devices together in a mesh network. It's a proven and deployed technology that's been in the market for several years. Thread is different from other mesh technologies by addressing all of the following:

• Thread is focused on the networking-layer only
• Thread networks allow both multicast (flooding) and unicast (routed) messaging which provide for network scalability and a reliability network
• Thread is IP-based and provides a convergence layer across all networks
• Thread has built-in security at the networking layer authenticating devices before joining the network and using MAC encryption for data on the network.

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The Internet runs on IP. From your phone, to your router, to connections across the globe, IP is the technology that allows devices to communicate directly with each other, regardless of what connectivity technologies they use. Thread brings IP connectivity to the low-power wireless devices that make up the smart home and makes it easier to communicate with other IP connected devices in the home such as smartphones, tablets, and computers to create and control a Thread network.

In doing so, Thread devices don't need proprietary gateways or translators but can make direct connections to the other devices they're interoperating with. This reduces infrastructure needs and investment, potential points of failure, and maintenance burdens while providing the ability for end-to-end security. It also makes it easier to connect Thread products to personal devices like mobile phones and tablets. Thread doesn't need to be in your phone to connect to Thread products, because both devices are on the same IP network. Devices using other technologies may interact with Thread devices through a hub or gateway.

Thread, combined with other IP network technologies, seamlessly integrates and supports a variety of IP-based IoT end devices from a number of vendors, talking to different clouds, while simultaneously running multiple application layers, such as OCF, Matter, KNX, and DALI. The Internet doesn't have a single app layer, the home isn't any different. Thread does all of this today without any extra hardware or software -- no translators, gateways, proxies or hubs -- which saves developers time and money, and promises the end user a lower cost, less power-hungry, and more visually-pleasing solution. This clearly illustrates Thread's tremendous value as an IP-based networking protocol: many apps, many use cases, many devices, and many clouds: one network, no hubs

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The Thread specification is available to anyone, and Thread Certification is open to members of the Thread Group. Learn more about the benefits of Thread Group membership, and how to join here.

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Thread Certification is open and there are a number of "Built on Thread" devices publicly available. For developers, there are a number of vendors offering silicon, software, and development tools to help you build Thread devices.

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Look for products bearing the "Built on Thread" or "Thread Certified Component" logos. These devices have undergone and passed rigorous Thread network testing and certification. "Built on Thread" certification is used for end products while "Thread Certified Component" is used for components utilized in end products. 

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Thread is an IP-based mesh network designed to securely and reliably connect hundreds of products around the home. Thread's technology isn't reliant on a home internet connection or Wi-Fi, instead, it provides a dedicated network for connecting products in the home. Thread is built on IEEE 802.15.4 MAC/PHY which was designed for low-power low bandwidth control applications making it the ideal choice for small IoT devices that have power constraints. Wi-Fi is designed to support high bandwidth data such as video and audio and to connect to the internet. Thread is a complementary technology to Wi-Fi. Using Thread on battery and constrained devices, brings them into the same infrastructure as Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is used to connect to the internet.

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There are Wi-Fi access points that have Thread technology built-in. A Border Router, as defined by the Thread specification, is a function not a device. Developers of IoT devices can choose to add this functionality.

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Thread is IPv6 based, bringing a familiar way of setting up and managing the network for system administrators, with no need to worry about address and topology assignment. End-to-end routing and addressability allows IPv6 packets to securely move from one end point to the other, whether on the same Thread mesh network, or across the world. Its 6LowPAN foundation is based on low power IEEE 802.15.4 radio technology that supports sleepy nodes and reduces network overhead. And by offering multiple application protocols, it seamlessly integrates with existing products. Thread is based on the proven, secure and already widely deployed Thread specification that is currently used in residential and commercial IoT applications.

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Thread is designed to accommodate many applications that benefit from its security, scalability and flexible IT maintenance. This includes lighting, HVAC, security & safety, window coverings, to name a few, for office buildings, hotels, factories, universities, outdoor applications and smart city areas.

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Thread is based on the IPv6 protocol which runs application layers over IP. Similar to Ethernet and Wi-Fi, it is transparent to the application protocol being used and can support multiple applications simultaneously. This eliminates the need to set up and maintain multiple physical networks for multiple devices and applications. Many popular building automation standards such as DALI, KNX and Matter are available for IP or are in the process of making an IP-based implementation available. Implementers may also choose to use a custom based application layer.

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Thread allows IP-based application layers to run on a Thread mesh-network, supporting the use of simultaneous applications. This includes IP-based versions of building automation standards. At the application-level, a Thread network running application layers allows for compatibility with Building Automation Systems, provisioning, monitoring and analysis tools.

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Devices in enterprise installations are associated with an operational domain, the scope and size of which is defined by the network administrator, and which typically have thousands of nodes. Thread adds the ability to associate devices with an operational IT domain and can scale up to support thousands of devices. Enterprise-level IT systems require the ability to assign an identity to each device in their managed network. Thread adds the capability to assign a secure, verifiable identity to each individual device. The role of managing a network in a professional installation is associated with specific privileges. Thread adds the ability to assign levels of network privileges to individual users or groups of users.

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When a Thread network is operating and connected to the enterprise network, adding a new device can be commissioned and configured using a smartphone connected to the same network. Setting up new devices on a Thread network which is not connected to the enterprise network, either because of standalone needs or because a Border Router is not present, Thread device manufacturers can offer various ways to set-up and commission these devices using a smartphone.

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Devices can seamlessly and automatically switch to the network that is closest in proximity, or administrators can set prioritized networks. This allows for unmatched scalability when the network is extended with additional nodes, for example to accommodate higher network throughput demands, without the need to replace the entire system.

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Installation handover typically requires that the installer demonstrate to the network engineer the correctly mounted and wired installation. Thread adds essential installation handover functionality and verification capabilities. It requires less alteration during refurbishing, reducing installation costs and simplifying system-wide updates. Furthermore, Thread adds the capability for network engineers to remotely commission devices and simultaneously commission multiple devices.

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Thread offers near real-time ability to collect data from a broad range of cloud-connected, cross-network and cross-sector devices without conversions or the need for multiple network-interfaces.

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Thread is based on the IPv6 protocol which is deployed by many ISPs and enterprise networks. IPv6’s main advantage is the large address space allowing individual devices unique IP addresses. Thread defines an IPv6 transport over an IEEE 802.15.4 data-link layer and uses a Border Router to directly connect devices to the enterprise network or cloud.

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Thread is a networking standard that enables the usage of multiple application solutions. Thread Group has partnered with key technology alliances to enable interoperability and coexistence of multiple standards in the same ecosystem. Learn about our Liaison Partners.

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OpenThread is an open-source implementation of the Thread networking protocol technology developed and released by Google and maintained on GitHub.

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OpenThread released by Google is an open-source implementation of Thread technology. Developers who choose to implement OpenThread in shippable products must join the Thread Group in order to certify those products and market them as Thread-certified.

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No. If a company uses OpenThread to build a product, they need to be a member of the Thread Group in order to gain the Intellectual Property (IP) rights to ship Thread products and to complete product certification, which ensures that products using Thread work together effortlessly and securely right out of the box.

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If developers choose not to join Thread Group and ship products using Thread technology, they are not conferred the IP rights required to practice and ship Thread technology, and may subject themselves to legal action, including but not limited to licensing fees.

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No. The Thread specification is available to all members of the Thread Group. Google added Thread technology to GitHub to make it available to more developers. For any OpenThread products to be Thread-certified or marketed as such, a company still needs to join the Thread Group and complete the product certification program.

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While membership at the Contributor and Sponsor levels is a step towards gaining access to royalty-free intellectual property rights (IPR) for Thread technology, membership alone is not sufficient. Please see the frequently asked questions and answers at “Intellectual Property” for more information.

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To qualified components and products (see more below), Thread technology is typically available royalty-free under RAND-RF (reasonable and non-discriminatory, royalty-free) terms for IPR held by other Thread members.

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No, membership at any level is not sufficient to gain and receive royalty-free intellectual property rights (IPR) for Thread technology.

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To ensure we can keep the promise of broad interoperability made by our rigorous and meaningful Thread Certified Component and Built on Thread certification programs and marks, the Thread technology IPR grant is coupled tightly with our certification programs.

Consequently, to receive a Thread IPR grant from other Thread Group members and to enjoy the rights under that grant, which are typically royalty-free, you must:

1. Be a Contributor or Sponsor member. These are the two membership classes with access to our certification programs.
2. Pursue certification for a specific, candidate component or product via one of the following:
   1. Testing at a Thread Group Authorized Test Lab (ATL), or
   2. Inheritance of an existing Thread component or product certification
3. Achieve certification for the candidate component or product.

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