Google -led IoT wireless "Thread" aims to be the leading role of smart home with three strengths

The development of the IoT wireless standard "Thread" promoted by Nest Labs, a subsidiary of the alphabet with Google, is finally full -fledged.The first certified product based on the technical specifications formulated by the promoted organization Thread Group will be launched on the market this fall."It is said that nearly 200 types of products will acquire authentication in 2016. I have never heard of wireless standards that have risen in this short time."This is Yukari Mizutani of Silicon Laboratries, a semiconductor vendor, one of the founding members of the Thread Group.

Realization of mesh communication with IP is a wireless standard created for "smart home" that connects various devices in the house to the network to achieve an efficient and comfortable life. One of the wireless technology used in smart home is Wi-Fi, which is widely used at home. However, Wi-Fi, which has a large power consumption, is difficult to apply to sensors that require long-term operation in batteries. Therefore, in the United States, Zigbee and Z-WAVE, which are excellent in power saving, are being used for sensors and lighting control. However, when viewed as a wireless technology for smart home, ZIGBEE and Z-WAVE have drawbacks. It does not support IP (Internet protocol), and to connect to the Internet or LAN, it is necessary to convert protocols on the gateway. In addition, Zigbee has an IP -based Zigbee IP, but it is not functionally sufficient and not very popular. Thread is the same as Zigbee in the physical layer / Mac layer..15.4 (hereinafter "15"."4") is used to combine high power saving and seamless communication between the Internet / LAN by implementing the IP communication function in the upper layer (network layer / transport layer).Chart 1).

Like ZIGBEE, a long -range transmission is possible by connecting the terminals with a bucket relay type, and a mesh network that automatically bypasses a different route can be configured when a failure occurs.However, the fact that the route setting is performed on the IP is a big difference from Zigbee.It is compatible with IPv6, and it is possible to assign multiple addresses to one device.In the case of zigbee, IP conversion is required, so the gateway connected to the IP network needs to be consolidated in one place, but IP -based Thread has no such restriction and has a multiple border routers that will be connected.A strong network can be realized.Smartphones and PCs are currently "15.4 "Compatible wireless modules are not installed, so it is not possible to communicate directly with the Thread device, but it is expected that communication with smartphones and PCs will be possible by supporting Wi-Fi with a border router.It is done (Chart 2).

THREAD is mainly 2.It is operated in the 4GHz band, and the communication speed is 250 kbps.