Hey, I might be completely off with this but since Particle Mesh uses https://openthread.io/ will I be able to use other Openthread compatible products as gateways or routers? For example Nest?
Great question! Thread is a standards-based networking layer and Thread-certified components get their stamp when they demonstrate conformance and interoperability. Thread doesn’t define an “app layer,” enabling all sorts of use cases, be them completely open ecosystems or private, enterprise-like deployments. This means there can be different app layers with different app layer-level security. Some products may use app layers that allow other products and app layers on to their network while others don’t. Or they allow them to join the network if they have the correct security credentials but don’t trust them/allow them to talk to their devices. So there’s actually two questions to ask here:
- Will other Thread/OpenThread devices allow Particle Mesh devices onto their Thread network
- Will Particle Mesh devices allow non-Particle Mesh devices onto a Particle Mesh network
For 1., that’s entirely up to the device makers. Nest has an app layer called Weave and doesn’t currently allow third-party devices makers to talk directly to their hardware (official response here.) Other device makers might have different policies.
For 2., most developers using Particle are building for their own deployments and are generally not trying to build a multi-vendor ecosystem. However, we don’t necessarily want to prevent them. As we get closer to ship we’ll be evaluating the implications (like security & performance) of allowing non-Particle Mesh devices to use Particle Mesh devices as routers and gateways but would like to make that possible.
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Thanks for the answer. Curious on how you would evaluate the second usecase, allowing others on the Particle Mesh, but I guess I will just wait and see.
This also made me think that the customer base that buys into products running on the Particle Mesh is probably quite likely to buy other Particle Mesh products. Think IoT devices from smaller/mid sized companies. So a competitive advantage to develop on the Particle Mesh is the more robust connection through leveraging other already existing Particle Mesh products in the customer’s homes.
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Totally! That’s something we’ll all explore once Particle Mesh is in the wild.
Any update on this second use scenario?
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