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Comment by mrb | Hacker News Reader

«Current solutions are locked in to vendor platforms»

Not true. For example, mesh technology Thread is built on 802.15.4 and is very much multi-vendor. At least 4 companies make Thread chipsets (Silicon Labs, NXP, Qualcom, Nordic Semiconductor) and has 100+ member companies: https://www.threadgroup.org/thread-group#OurMembers There is an open source implementation from Google (OpenThread) who is a major member. Adoption and interest is really ramping up rapidly. Recently the spec was made freely and openly available. No royalties. I think it's really promising.

Disclosure: I participated a little bit in the design of Thread by doing a security review on behalf of Google.

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It seems to me (from a brief scan of the spec) that they actually are using 802.15.4 to establish the mesh at low-rate speeds, then switching to a different high-rate standard once the handshaking is complete.

Given the rate limitations of Thread (I'm assuming they're similar to the limitations of the underlying 802.15.4 standard), then it really isn't solving the same problem as this new specification, but are actually complementary.

Perhaps GP meant that existing high-rate mesh implementations are vendor-specific?

Yes, I assume GP is referring to these sorts of wifi mesh devices:

- http://www.netgear.com/orbi/

- https://eero.com/

- https://www.linksys.com/us/velop/

- https://www.engeniustech.com/whole-home-mesh-wifi.html

- https://store.plumewifi.com/

- https://www.asus.com/us/Networking/Lyra/

- https://store.google.com/product/google_wifi

- https://www.tp-link.com/us/products/details/cat-5700_Deco-M5...

Thread is neat, but you can't connect your laptop to Netflix with it. EasyMesh is clearly for standardizing those:

>Wi-Fi EasyMesh™ delivers a standards-based approach to deploying adaptable networks comprised of multiple access points from different vendors, extending uniform Wi-Fi coverage and enhancing performance throughout a larger service area than is possible with a single access point. Wi-Fi EasyMesh allows users and service providers to select interoperable devices across different brands to ensure fast, wide, and reliable Wi-Fi coverage.

Yes, and notably Ubiquiti and Meraki.

I think the parent was talking about so far vendor-specific solutions for 802.11.

802.15.4, meant for low-rate, low-power applications, is something completely different. This standard doesn't even compare remotely, regarding applications (you will never be able to watch a youtube video over 802.15.4) or how it works internally IMO. Even the definition of what constitutes a "mesh" is considerably different.

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