Apple, Google, Amazon, and the Zigbee Alliance announced on Wednesday that the companies would be forming a new working group with the intention of developing and promoting the adoption of a new IP-based connectivity standard for smart home products. The products would focus on increased compatibility, security, and simplified development for manufacturers.
Zigbee Alliance, whose board members include companies such as IKEA, Legrand, NXP Semiconductors, Resideo, SmartThings, Schneider Electric, Signify, Silicon Labs, Somfy, and Wulian will also contribute to the project.
The overall goal of the “Project Connected Home over IP” looks to make it easier for manufacturers to build devices that are compatible with smart home and voice services such as Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, and others by defining a specific set of IP-based networking technologies for device certification. This, in turn, will help incorporate existing smart home technologies, such as Apple’s HomeKit and Google’s Weave and Thread
Per the released statement:
We’re contributing two of our market-tested and open-source smart home technologies, Weave and Thread. Both are built on IP and have been integrated into millions of homes around the world. Weave, an application protocol, works over many networks like Thread, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, and even cellular. Even when devices are on different networks, Weave allows them all to securely work with each other.
The produced connectivity standard will be open source and royalty free, with code stored and maintained on GitHub. The working group has a goal to release a draft specification and a preliminary reference implementation in late 2020.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.