The Zigbee Alliance today publicly announced a major ongoing initiative
to make smart home and IoT products easier to develop, deploy, and sell
across ecosystems. The “All Hubs Initiative” is driven by a Zigbee
Alliance workgroup comprised of leading IoT companies including Amazon,
Comcast,
Exegin,
Kwikset,
Landis+Gyr,
LEEDARSON,
Legrand,
MMB
Networks, NXP,
OSRAM,
Schneider
Electric, Silicon
Labs, Somfy,
and many others with the goal of improving interoperability between IoT
devices and major consumer and commercial platforms. The product of this
effort is a set of features at the application and network layers of
Zigbee that will be incorporated into the upcoming 3.1 version of Zigbee
technology. While Zigbee Alliance members are able to participate in
this workgroup and contribute to and access these evolving
specifications, the Alliance is publicly announcing this initiative
today as a number of smart home systems will add these features to their
platform certification requirements ahead of the ratification of the
full 3.1 feature set to more immediately take advantage of these
enhancements.
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The All Hubs Initiative strengthens interoperability and shows how global industry leaders and innovators come together to solve industry-wide challenges. (Graphic: Business Wire)
“Consumers and businesses want connected devices that offer value and
convenience, work great, and work together seamlessly,” said Chris
DeCenzo, chair of the All Hubs Initiative workgroup, board director of
the Zigbee Alliance, and principal engineer at Amazon. “Through the All
Hubs Initiative, leading IoT companies in the Zigbee Alliance are
working together to define interoperability standards to help device
makers innovate and expand selection while continuing to deliver
consistent, reliable experiences for customers.”
Meeting the Evolving Needs of Major Ecosystems
IoT and smart home ecosystems can vary in their supported features,
business models, value propositions, customer experience expectations,
security requirements, and other factors. This is the nature of the
openness and innovation of the IoT, and the Zigbee standard was designed
to support this flexibility across innovative offerings from Amazon,
Samsung SmartThings, Philips Hue, IKEA, and others. However, this
flexibility can sometimes create challenges for device vendors trying to
build and market products that meet the requirements of different
ecosystems and earn their coveted “Works With” badges – and challenges
for businesses and customers using those products across a number of
hubs.
“As innovation across the IoT continues to accelerate, device vendors
need to ensure their products can adapt to the diverse and evolving
requirements of multiple ecosystems, and reliably work across major IoT
hubs,” said Tobin Richardson, President and CEO, Zigbee Alliance. “The
All Hubs Initiative is not just an important effort in strengthening
interoperability, but a phenomenal example of how global industry
leaders and innovators come together within the Zigbee Alliance to share
best practices and solve industry-wide challenges.”
The All Hubs Initiative is not a specific version of Zigbee technology,
but rather a list of features that will contribute to the core Zigbee
roadmap. More specifically, they are a set of updates to the Zigbee
specification at both the application and network layers that maintain
the flexibility of Zigbee to meet diverse market needs, while improving
interoperability. Key to maintaining this flexibility, these
improvements establish a robust method by which hubs can communicate
their supported and required features to new devices that join their
networks, and how those devices should configure themselves
appropriately. They also further standardize the process of
commissioning and operating Zigbee devices based on the best practices
and real-world experience of Alliance member companies. These updates
will be part of Zigbee 3.1 — the next iteration of the Zigbee standard,
which is currently scheduled for release later in 2019.
These updated features and Zigbee 3.1 itself will be backwards
compatible with Zigbee 3.0 certified devices and hubs. Some ecosystems
however are participating in “early implementations” of the All Hubs
Initiative’s features and may request device vendors support these
features as part of their “Works With” programs, ahead of the formal
launch of Zigbee 3.1.
Bringing the Industry Together: How the All Hubs Initiative Started
The project was envisioned in the fall of 2017 at the first Hive
Executive IoT Summit organized by the Zigbee Alliance. These exclusive
events take place annually around the globe to bring together
market-moving individuals and organizations from across the IoT
industry. Attendees represent companies from within and outside the
Zigbee Alliance and include technology executives, visionaries, and
leaders from other standards bodies.
As a result of key discussions on the interoperability challenges facing
major platforms, device vendors, and consumers, key ecosystem
participants committed to working together to solve these issues.
Together, they formed the All Hubs Initiative, which now operates as a
technical workgroup under the Zigbee Alliance umbrella. Securing buy-in
from leaders throughout the IoT landscape gives the All Hubs Initiative
strong backing and diverse support as an ‘all hands in’ effort for the
growth of the entire industry.
How to Get Started
The All Hubs Initiative feature set is available to current Zigbee
Alliance members. If you’re already a member, visit here
for details. If you’re not yet a member, click here
to learn about how to join. For more information about the Zigbee
Alliance, its Board
of Directors, and benefits of being Zigbee Certified, visit www.zigbee.org.
About the Zigbee Alliance
The Zigbee Alliance is the foundation and future of the Internet of
Things. Established in 2002, our wide-ranging global membership
collaborates to create and evolve universal open standards for the
products transforming the way we live, work, and play. With our members’
deep and diverse expertise, robust certification programs, and a full
suite of open IoT solutions, we are leading the movement toward a more
intuitive, imaginative, and useful world. The Zigbee Alliance board of
directors is comprised of executives from Amazon,
Comcast,
Huawei,
The
Kroger Co., Landis+Gyr,
LEEDARSON,
Legrand,
MMB
Networks, NXP
Semiconductors, Schneider
Electric, Signify
(formerly Philips Lighting), Silicon
Labs, SmartThings,
Somfy,
Texas
Instruments, and Wulian.
www.zigbee.org
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