Thread Group joins forces with OCF to improve IoT interoperability

The Thread Group, co-founded by Alphabet”s Nest, and the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) are joining forces to improve interoperability between their IoT software, announced Forbes.

Supporters of low-power technologies, the two entities are large-scale standardization groups for IoT. Their initiative could represent an important step in deciphering the major challenge of machine to machine communication.

“We work every day to unlock the opportunity of IoT that interoperability will enable,” said Mike Richmond, executive director, OCF. “But this collaboration with Thread is special. With Thread, we are able to provide both of our members with a joint solution that enables companies to more easily develop solutions for the connected home. “

The goal of their partnership is to build products which boost the acceptance and overall adoption of IoT home devices. The technologies the two companies are implementing will have to work together, meaning OCF”s application level software operates on top of the Thread IPv6-based networking protocol.

“Thread Group members identified and prioritized OCF as a strategically important application layer to run over the Thread wireless mesh network,” added said Thread Group president, Grant Erickson. “In order for consumers to put their faith in the connected home, their experience must be simple, reliable, and effortless. This agreement takes us one step closer to our common goal of ensuring that consumers will have smart home devices that seamlessly work together out of the box, regardless of their brand or function.”

Thread Group and OCF will work towards improving product experience, scaling their technology to connect larger devices, and to implement a user-friendly IoT infrastructure which all households can soon carry out. In spite of the large number of members the two have so far gathered, there aren”t any commercial products for sale using OCF”s software.