As seen by a variety of announcements from smart home device manufacturers and ecosystems in 2021 and at CES 2022, adoption of the Thread standard is gaining momentum. We have shifted from educating the market on what Thread is, to it becoming a universal low-power-mesh IP networking standard for constrained devices. The industry has recognized the benefits Thread brings over classic network technologies and how it unlocks new use cases and applications enabling innovative connected devices. Thread’s impact is being seen in both the smart home space and the commercial building world.

Thread Moving Into Next Phase
In the smart home space, Thread has become recognized as a better way to connect smart devices making them simpler to use, more responsive, reliable and secure. Plus, Thread has seen wide adoption in Google’s Nest and Apple’s HomeKit ecosystems in the past year. Since products based on the new Matter standard are on the horizon this year, Thread will become ubiquitous among smart home devices. The new Matter standard, which unifies device compatibility throughout major smart home ecosystems, uses Thread uniquely as its IP mesh networking solution.

In the commercial and smart building world, Thread is also moving into an exciting new phase. As the Thread Group, we have been actively involved with the major standardization bodies in building automation platforms like KNX, DALI and BACnet, and supporting them to migrate towards native IP radio connectivity. With this new network layer technology in place, this year will become the year of wide adoption and implementation in the commercial world.

Thread Commercial Marketing Working Group
Klaus Waechter is guiding this industry-critical and exciting process. Klaus is the Global Standardization Manager of SIEMENS Smart Infrastructure Building Products and chairs the Thread Commercial Marketing Working Group. He leads the team that clarifies commercial use cases, injects requirements of installers and integrators, ensures that the Thread standard meets the necessary regulatory requirements, develops documentation, and leads the overall education and ecosystem development efforts for Thread in the commercial building domain.

The work group interacts with people and companies in various fields of the commercial building space, ranging from software and component makers to system integrators and user communities.   

Waechter remarks that 2022 will be an important year for Thread in the commercial domain, as the standard will make its jump into widespread adoption. That means that his team will make sure that entities like application standards organizations, silicon manufacturers, building automation system vendors, planners, and system architects are involved and aligned.

Addressing Key Topics
This year, several key topics are on the agenda, according to Waechter. For example, the working group is defining commissioning tools and border routers for large scale networks, it is working with formal standardization bodies and regional regulatory organizations to make sure requirements are met, and it is shaping the implementation of extensions to increase Thread’s reach and reliability even further in commercial buildings. 

We continue our involvement in IP-BLIS, the industry organization that brings the various building automation standards together in their efforts to align various aspects of the move to IP-based solutions. Furthermore, we are creating documentation and other resources to assist implementers, and they are working on addressing major industry events like ISE, Light+Building and others.

Become Part of Thread in Commercial
Being involved as a company in the standardization process of key technologies and growing new applications and markets is critical, says Waechter. It allows your organization to have a say in the direction a standard is taking, learn how it works, and align it with your company’s long-term technology and product vision. 

We welcome companies to join Thread and participate in the Commercial Marketing Working Group. We have regular group calls, and face-to-face events and meetings.

For more information, do not hesitate to contact Klaus via Thread’s office.